6I2S 
W73 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


JUKES-EDWARDS 


A  STUDY 

IN  EDUCATION   AND    HEREDITY 


By 

A.    E.    WiNSHIP,    LiTT.D. 


Harkisburg,  Pa.: 

■R.  X.  ifBS^erg  S.  Co. 

X900. 


coptkight,  1900, 

Bt 

R.  L.  MYERS  &  CO. 


rii) 


W  73 


To  Him 
Who,  more  than  any  other,  has  taught  us  how  to 
afford  opportunity  for  neglected,  unfortunate  and 
wayward  boys  and  girls  to  transform  themselve^^ 
into  industrious,  virtuous  and  upright  citizens 
through  the  most  remarkable  institution  in  the  land, 

WILLIAM  E.  GEORGE, 

founder  of 

The  George  Junior  Republic, 

this  sttot  is  dedicated. 


(lii) 

1J19731 


R.  L.  MYERS  &  CO., 

PUBLISHERS  OF 

Standard  Helps  for  Teachers, 
Standard  School  Books. 


SEND  FOR  CATALOGUE. 


HARRISBURG,  PENNA. 


(iv) 


PREFACE. 


Of  all  the  problems  which  America  faces  on  the  land 
and  on  the  seas,  no  one  is  so  important  as  that  of  making 
regenerates  out  of  degenerates.  The  massing  of  people 
in  large  cities,  the  incoming  of  vast  multitudes  from  the 
impoverished  masses  of  several  European  and  Asiatic  coun- 
tries, the  tendency  to  interpret  liberty  as  license,  the  con- 
tagious nature  of  moral,  as  well  as  of  physical,  diseases 
combine  to  make  it  of  the  utmost  importance  that  American 
enterprise  and  moral  force  find  ways  and  means  for  accom- 
plishing this  transformation  The  grand  results  of  the 
movement  in  New  York  city  inspired  by  Jacob  Riis  ;  the 
fascinating  benevolence  of  the  Roycroft  Shop  in  East  Aurora, 
N.  Y. ;  the  marvelous  transfiguration  of  character — I  speak 
it  reverently — at  the  George  Junior  Republic,  Freeville,  N. 
Y.,  added  to  the  College  Settlement  and  kindred  efforts 
merely  indicate  what  may  be  accomplished  when  philan- 
thropy supplements  saying  by  doing,  and  when  Christianity 
stands  for  the  beauty  of  wholeness  and  is  satisfied  with 
nothing  less  than  the  physical,  mental  and  moral  conver- 
sions of  all  classes  among  the  masses  at  home  as  well  as 
abroad,  in  the  East  as  v/ell  as  in  the  West. 

A  problem  is  primarily  something  thrown  at  us  as  a  chal- 
lenge for  us  to  see  through  it.  To  solve  a  problem  is  to 
loosen  it  so  that  it  may  be  looked  into  or  seen  through. 
Whatever  contributes  to  the  loosening  of  a  problem  by 
throwing  light  \ipon  the  conditions  is  of  value  in  aiding  in 
its  solution,  hence  the  publication  of  this  study  of  the 
family  of  Jonathan  Edwards  as  a  contrast  to  the  Jukes. 

A.  E.  W. 

Somerville,  Mass..  June  1,  1900. 

(V) 


TABLE    OF  (CONTENTS. 


Page. 
The  Jukks, 7 

A  Study  of  Jonathan  Edwards, 15 

Th2  Inhekitance  and  Tkaining  of  Me.  Edwards 20 

The  Children's  Start  in  Life, 29 

Mrs.  Edwards  and  Home  Training, 37 

Capacitt,  Character  and  Training, 41 

Aaron  Burr, 44 

Contrasts, 53 

Timothy  Edwards, 61 

Colonel  "William   Edwards 67 

Tnc  Mary  Edwards  Dwiqht  Family, 74 


(yi) 


CHAPTER  I 


THE    JUKES 


Education  is  something  more  than  going  to  school 
for  a  few  weeks  each  year,  is  more  than  knowing 
how  to  read  and  write.  It  has  to  do  with  charac- 
ter, with  industry,  and  with  patriotism.  Educa- 
tion tends  to  do  away  with  vulgarity,  pauperism, 
and  crime,  tends  to  prevent  disease  and  disgrace, 
and  helps  to  manliness,  success  and  loyalty. 

Ignorance  leads  to  all  those  things  that  educa- 
tion tries  to  do  away  with,  and  it  tends  to  do 
away  with  all  the  things  that  education  tries  to 
cultivate.  It  is  easy  to  say  these  things,  and  every 
one  knows  they  are  true,  biit  few  realize  how 
much  such  statements  mean.  It  is  not  easy  to 
take  a  view  of  such  matters  over  a  long  range  of 
time  and  experience. 

A  boy  that  leaves  school  and  shifts  for  himself  by 
blacking  boots,  selling  papers,  and  "swiping"  fruit 
often  appears  much  smarter  than  a  boy  of  the  same 
age  who  is  going  to  school  all  the  time  and  does 
not  see  so  much  of  the  world.  A  boy  of  twelve 
who  has  lived  by  his  wits  is  often  keener  than  a 
boy  of  the  same  age  who  has  been  well  brought 
up  at  home  and  at  school,  but  such   a  boy  knows 

(7) 


8  JUKES— ED  WARDS 

about  as  much  and  is  about  as  much  of  a  man  at 
twelve  as  he  will  ever  be,  while  the  boy  that  gets 
an  education  becomes  more  and  more  of  a  man  as 
long  as  he  lives. 

But  this  might  be  said  a  thousand  times  to 
every  truant,  and  it  would  have  very  little  eflfect, 
because  he  thinks  that  he  will  be  an  exception. 
He  never  sees  beyond  his  own  boyish  smartness. 
Few  men  and  women  realize  how  true  it  is  that 
these  smart  rascally  fellows,  who  persist  in  remain- 
ing in  ignorance,  are  to  be  the  vicious,  pauper, 
criminal  class  who  are  to  fill  the  dens  of  vice,  the 
poorhouses,  and  the  prisons;  who  are  to  be  burg- 
lars, highwaymen,  and  murderers.  In  place  of 
opinions,  it  is  well  sometimes  to  present  facts  so 
clear  and   definite   that   they  cannot   be  forgotten. 

R.  A.  Dugdale,  of  New  York  State,  began  the 
study  of  "The  Jukes"  family  in  1874,  and  in  1877 
in  the  twentieth  annual  report  of  the  New  York 
Prison  Commission  he  made  a  statement  of  the 
results.*  This  brief  summary  of  "the  Jukes"  is 
based  upon  the  facts  which  Mr.  Dugdale  has  pub- 
lished. 

"The  Jukes"  is  a  name  given  to  a  large  family 
of  degenerates.  It  is  not  the  real  name  of  any 
family,  but  a  general  term  applied  to  forty-two  dif- 
ferent names  borne  by  those  in  whose  veins  flows 
the  blood  of  one  man.  The  word  "jukes"  means 
"to  roost."     It  refers  to  the  habit  of  fowls  to  have 


*G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New   York,  reprinted  this  study  in 
Jukes." 


THE    JUKES  9 

no  home,  no  nest,  no  coop,  preferring  to  fly  into 
the  trees  and  roost  away  from  the  places  where 
they  belong.  The  word  has  also  come  to  mean 
people  who  are  too  indolent  and  lazy  to  stand  uj^ 
or  sit  up,  but  sprawl  out  anywhere.  "  The  Jukes  " 
are  a  family  that  did  not  make  good  homes,  did 
not  provide  themselves  with  comforts,  did  not 
work  steadily.  They  are  like  hens  that  fly  into 
the  trees  to  roost. 

The  father  of  "The  Jukes"  Mr.  Dugdale  styled 
"Max."  He  was  born  about  1720  of  Dutch  stock. 
Had  he  remained  with  his  home  folk  in  the  town 
and  been  educated,  and  thrifty  like  the  rest  of  the 
boys,  he  might  have  given  the  world  a  very  dif- 
ferent kind  of  famUy  from  "The  Jukes." 

Max  was  a  jolly  good  fellow  and  not  very  bad. 
He  was  popular  and  he  could  tell  a  good  story  that 
made  everybody  laugh.  Of  course  he  was  vulgar, 
such  jolly  good  fellows  are  usually  vulgar.  He 
would  not  go  to  school,  because  he  did  not  like 
it.  He  would  not  stay  in  evenings,  for  he  did  not 
like  that.  He  did  not  enjoy  being  talked  to,  but 
always  wanted  to  talk  himself,  and  to  talk  to  boys 
who  would  laugh  at  his  yarns.  He  would  not 
work  for  he  did  not  like  it.  He  wanted  to  go 
fishing,  hunting,  and  trapping ;  so  he  left  home 
early  and  took  to  the  woods. 

Max  liked  nature.     He  thought  he  was  lots  bet- ' 
ter  than  town  people  because  he  knew  more  about 
nature.     He  found  a  lovely  spot  on  the  border  of 
a   beautiful   lake    in    New   York    State,    where    the 


10  JUKES— ED  WA  BBS 

rocks  are  grand,  the  Avaters  lovely,  the  forest  glori- 
ous. There  was  never  a  more  charming  place  in 
which  to  be  good  and  to  love  God  than  this  place 
where  Max  built  his  shanty  about  1750.  But  he 
did  not  go  there  to  worship  or  to  be  good.  He 
went  simply  to  get  away  from  good  people,  to  get 
where  he  would  not  have  to  work,  and  where  he 
would  not  be  preached  to,  and  this  beautiful  spot 
became  a  notorious  cradle  of  crime.  Nature  is 
lovely,  but  it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world 
how  we  know  nature  and  why  we  love  it. 

In  1874  Richard  L.  Dugdale  was  employed  by 
the  New  York  Prison  Commission  to  visit  the 
prisons  of  the  state.  In  this  visit  he  was  surprised 
to  find  criminals  in  six  different  prisons  whose 
relatives  were  mostly  criminals  or  paupers,  and  the 
more  surprised  to  discover  that  these  six  criminals, 
under  four  different  names,  were  all  descended 
from  the  same  family.  This  led  Mr.  Dugdale  to 
study  their  relatives,  living  and  dead.  He  gave 
himself  up  to  this  work  with  great  zeal,  studying 
the  court  and  prison  records,  reports  of  town  poor- 
houses,  and  the  testimony  of  old  neighbors  and 
employers.  He  learned  the  details  of  540  descend- 
ants of  Max  in  five  generations.  He  learned  the 
exact  facts  about  169  who  married  into  the  family. 
It  is  customary  to  count  as  of  a  family  the  men 
who  marry  into  it.  He  traced  in  j^art  others,  which 
carried  the  number  up  to  1,200  persons  of  the 
family  of  the  Jukes. 


THE    JUKES  11 

The  Jukes  rarely  married  foreign-born  men  or 
women,  so  that  it  may  be  styled  a  distinctively 
American  family.  The  almost  universal  traits  of 
the  family  were  idleness,  ignorance,  and  vulgarity. 
They  would  not  work,  they  could  not  be  made  to 
study,  and  they  loved  vulgarity.  These  character- 
istics led  to  disease  and  disgrace,  to  pauperism  and 
crime.  They  were  a  disgustingly  diseased  family 
as  a  whole.  There  were  many  imbeciles  and  many 
insane.  Those  of  "the  Jukes"  who  tended  to  pau- 
perism were  rarely  criminal,  and  those  who  were 
criminal  were  rarely  paupers.  The  sick,  the  weak, 
and  goody-goody  ones  were  almost  all  paupers; 
the  healthy,  strong  ones  were  criminals. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  in  sociology  that  crimi- 
nals are  of  three  classes :  First,  those  who  direct 
crime,  the  capitalists  in  crime,  who  ai'e  rarely 
arrested,  who  seldom  commit  any  crime,  but  inspire 
men  to  crime  in  various  ways.  These  are  intelli- 
gent and  have  to  be  educated  to  some  extent. 
They  profit  by  crime  and  take  slight  risks. 

Second,  those  who  commit  heroic  crimes  and  find 
some  satisfaction  in  the  skill  and  daring  required. 
Safe- breaking,  train  robbery,  and  some  types  of 
burglary  require  men  of  ability  and  pluck,  and 
those  who  do  these  things  have  a  species  of  pride 
in  it. 

Third,  those  who  commit  weak  and  imbecile 
crimes,  which  mark  the  doer  as  a  sneak  and  a 
coward.  These  men  rob  hen  roosts,  waylay  help- 
less women  and  old  men,  steal  clothing  in  hallways. 


1  -2  .7  UKES—  K  D  WARl),^ 

and  burn  buildings.  The}'  are  always  cowardly 
about  everything  they  do,  and  never  have  the  pluck 
to  steal  chickens  even  until  they  are  half  drunk. 
They  often  commit  murder,  but  only  when  they 
are  detected  in  some  sneaking  crime  and  shoot 
because  they  are  too  cowardly  to  face  their  dis- 
coverer. 

Now  the  Jukes  were  almost  never  of  the  first  or 
second  class.  They  could  not  be  criminals  that 
required  capital,  brains,  education  or  nerve.  Even 
the  kind  of  pauperism  and  crime  in  which  they 
indulged  was  particularly  disgraceful.  This  is 
inevitably  true  of  all  classes  of  people  who  com- 
bine idleness,  ignorance,  and  vulgarity.  They  are 
not  even  respectable  among  criminals  and  paupers. 

There  is  an  honorable  pauperism.  It  is  no  dis- 
grace to  be  poor  or  to  be  in  a  poorhouse  if  there 
is  a  good  reason  for  it.  One  may  be  manly  in 
poverty.  But  the  Jukes  were  never  manly  or  hon- 
orable paupers,  they  were  weaklings  among  paupers. 

The}-  were  a  great  expense  to  the  state,  costing 
in  crime  and  pauperism  more  than  $1,250,000. 
Taken  as  a  whole,  they  not  only  did  not  contribute 
to  the  world's  prosperity,  but  they  cost  more  than 
$1,000  a  piece,  including  all  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, for  pauperism  and  crime. 

Those  who  worked  did  the  lowest  kind  of  ser- 
vice and  received  the  smallest  wages.  Only  twenty 
of  the  1,200  learned  a  trade,  and  ten  of  those 
learned  it  in  the  state  prison.  Even  they  were 
not  regularly  employed.     Men  who  work  regularly 


THE    JUKES  13 

even  at  unskilled  labor  are  generally  honest  men 
and  provide  for  the  family.  A  habit  of  irregular 
work  is  a  species  of  mental  or  moral  weakness,  or 
both.  A  man  or  woman  who  will  not  stick  to  a 
job  is  morally  certain  to  be  a  pauper  or  a  criminal. 

One  great  benefit  of  going  to  school,  especially 
of  attending  regularly  for  eight  or  ten  months  each 
year  for  nine  years  or  more,  is  that  it  establishes 
a  habit  of  regularity  and  persistency  in  effort. 
The  boy  who  leaves  school  to  go  to  work  does  not 
necessarily  learn  to  work  steadily,  but  often  quite 
the  reverse.  Few  who  graduate  from  a  grammar 
school,  or  who  take  the  equivalent  course  in  a  rural 
school,  fail  to  be  regular  in  their  habits  of  effort. 
This  accounts  in  part  for  the  fact  that  few  unskilled 
workmen  ever  graduated  from  a  grammar  school. 
Scarcely  any  of  the  Jukes  were  ever  at  school  any 
considerable  time.  Probably  no  one  of  them  ever 
had  so  much  as  a  completed  rural  school  education. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  find  anyone  who  is  honest 
and  industrious,  pure  and  prosperous,  who  has  not 
had  a  fair  education,  if  he  ever  had  the  oppor- 
tunity, as  all  children  in  the  United  States  now 
have.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  developed  from  a 
study  of  the  Jukes  that  it  is  much  easier  to  reform  a 
criminal  than  a  pauper. 

Here  are  a  few  facts  by  way  of  conclusion.  On 
the  basis  of  the  facts  gathered  by  Mr.  Dugdale, 
310  of  the  1,200  were  professional  paupers,  or  more 
than  one  in  four.  These  were  in  poorhouses  or  its 
equivalent  for  2,300  years. 


14  JUKES— ED  WARDS 

Three  hundred  of  the  1,200,  or  one  in  four,  died 
in  infancy  from  lack  of  good  care  and  good  condi- 
tions. 

There  were  fifty  women  who  lived  lives  of  notori- 
ous debauchery. 

Four  hundred  men  and  women  were  physically 
wrecked  early  by  their  own  wickedness. 

There  were  seven  murderers. 

Sixty  were  habitual  thieves  who  spent  on  the 
average  twelve  years  each  in  lawless  depredations. 

There  were  130  criminals  who  were  convicted 
more  or  less  often  of  crime. 

What  a  picture  this  presents!  Some  slight 
improvement  was  apparent  when  Mr.  Dugdale 
closed  his  studies.  This  resulted  from  evening 
schools,  from  manual  training  schools,  from  im- 
proved conditions  of  labor,  from  the  later  methods 
of  treating  prisoners. 


CHAPTER  II 

A    STUDY    OF    JONATHAN    EDWARDS 

The  story  of  the  Jukes  as  published  by  Mr.  Dug- 
dale  has  been  the  text  of  a  multitude  of  sermons, 
the  theme  of  numberless  addresses,  the  inspiration 
of  no  end  of  editorials  and  essays.  For  twenty 
years  there  was  a  call  for  a  companion  picture. 
Every  preacher,  orator,  and  editor  who  presented 
the  story  of  the  Jukes,  with  its  abhorrent  features, 
wanted  the  facts  for  a  cheery,  comforting,  convinc- 
ing contrast.  This  was  not  to  be  had  for  the  ask- 
ing. Several  attempts  had  been  made  to  find  the 
key  to  such  a  study  without  discovering  a  person 
of  the  required  prominence,  born  sufficiently  long 
ago,  with  the  necessary  vigor  of  intellect  and 
strength  of  character  who  established  the  habit  of 
having  large  families. 

In  1897  a  professional  scholarly  organization — 
to  which  the  author  has  the  honor  to  belong — 
assigned  to  him,  without  his  knowledge  or  consent, 
the  duty  of  preparing  an  essay  upon  Jonathan 
Edwards  for  the  May  meeting  of  1898.  The  study 
then  begun  led  to  a  search  for  the  facts  regarding 
his  family,  and  when  it  came  to  light  that  one  of 
Jonathan  Edwards'  descendants  presided  over  the 

:i5) 


16  JUKES— ED  WARDS 

New  York  Prison  CommibBion  when  it  employed 
Mr.  Dugdale  to  make  a  study  of  the  Jukes,  the 
appropriateness  of  the  contrast  was  more  than  ever 
apparent. 

In  this  study  the  sources  of  information  are  the 
various  genealogies  of  families  in  which  the  de- 
scendants of  Mr.  Edwards  play  a  part,  various  town 
histories  and  church  and  college  publications,  but 
chiefly  the  biographical  dictionaries  and  encyclo- 
paedias in  which  the  records  of  the  men  of  the 
family  are  chronicled.  It  would  be  impossible  to 
follow  out  the  positions  occupied  by  the  various 
members  but  for  the  pride  they  all  feel  in  record- 
ing the  fact  that  they  are  descendants  of  Jonathan 
Edwards.  A  good  illustration  of  this  may  be  had 
in  the  current  announcements  of  the  marvelously 
popular  novel,  "Richard  Carvel,"  in  which  it  is 
always  emphasized  that  Mr.  Winston  Churchill,  the 
author,  is  a  descendant  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 

Only  two  Americans  established  a  considerable 
and  permanent  reputation  in  the  world  of  Exiro- 
pean  thought  prior  to  the  jiresent  centui'y, — Ben- 
jamin Franklin  and  Jonathan  Edwards.  In  1736, 
Dr.  Isaac  Watts  published  in  England  Mr.  Ed- 
wards' account  of  the  beginning  of  the  great 
awakening  in  the  C^onnecticut  valley.  Here  more 
than  a  centuiy  and  a  half  ago,  when  the  colonies 
were  small,  their  future  unsuspected  and  the  ability 
of  their  leaders  um-ecognized,  Jonathan  Edwards 
"  erected  the  standard  of  Orthodoxy  for  enlightened 
Protestant   Europe."     Who    can    estimate    the    elo- 


A   STUDY  OF   JONATHAN    EDWARDS       17 

quence  of  that  simple  fact?  Almost  everything 
of  his  which  was  published  in  the  colonies  was 
speedily  republished  in  England,  Of  what  other 
American  philosopher  and  theologian  has  this  been 
true?  Here  are  a  few  of  the  tributes  to  Mr.  Ed- 
wards: 

Daniel  Webster:  "The  Freedom  of  the  Will" 
by  Mr.  Edwards  is  the  greatest  achievement  of  the 
human  intellect. 

J)r.  Chalmers:   The  greatest  of  theologians. 

Robert  Sail:  He  was  the  greatest  of  the  sons 
of  men, 

Dugald  Stewart:  Edwards  on  the  Will  never 
was  answered  and  never  will  be  answered. 

Encyclopaedia:  One  of  the  greatest  metaphysi- 
cians of  his  age. 

Edinburgh  JReview:  One  of  the  acutest  and 
most  powerful  of  reasoners, 

London  Quarterly  Review:  His  gigantic  speci- 
men of  theological  argument  is  as  near  to  perfec- 
tion as  we  may  expect  any  human  composition  to 
approach.  He  unites  the  sharpness  of  the  scimetar 
and  the  strength  of  the  battle-axe. 

Westminster  Review:  From  the  days  of  Plato 
there  has  been  no  life  of  more  simple  and  imposing 
grandeur  than  that  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 

President  McCosh,  of  Princeton:  The  greatest 
thinker  that  America  has  produced. 

Lyman  Beecher :  A  prince  among  preachers. 
In  our  day  there  is  no  man  who  comes  within  a 
thousand  miles  of  him. 


18  JUKES— EDWARDS 

Griswold's  Prose  Writers :  The  first  man  of  the 
world  during  the  second  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut:  The  most 
gifted  man  of  the  eighteenth  century,  perhaps  the 
most  profound  thinker  in  the  world. 

Moses  Coit  Tyler  :  The  most  original  and  acute 
thinker  yet  produced  in  America. 

This  is  the  man  whose  intellectual  life  has  thrilled 
in  the  mental  activity  of  more  than  1,400  men  and 
women  of  the  past  century  and  a  half,  and  which 
has  not  lost  its  virtue  or  its  power  in  all  these 
years. 

England  and  Scotland  are  not  wont  to  sit  at  our 
feet  even  in  this  day,  and  yet  they  eat  at  the  feet 
of  Jonathan  Edwards  as  in  the  presence  of  a  mas- 
ter when  he  was  a  mere  home  missionary,  living 
among  the  Indians,  to  whom  he  preached  every 
Lord's  day. 

The  birth  of  fame  is  always  an  interesting  study. 
It  is  easy  to  play  the  part  of  a  rocket  if  one  can 
sizzle,  and  flash,  and  rise  suddenly  in  darkness,  but 
to  take  one's  place  among  luminaries  and  shine 
with  permanent  brilliancy  is  so  rare  an  experience 
as  to  present  a  fascinating  study. 

Jonathan  Edwards  was  twenty-eight  years  of 
age,  had  been  the  pastor  of  a  church  on  the  fron- 
tier, as  Northampton  was,  for  four  years  without 
any  notable  experience,  when  he  was  invited  to 
preach  the  annual  sermon  before  the  association 
of  ministers  at  Boston.     Never  since  that  day  have 


A   STUDY  OF   JONATHAN  EDWARDS       19 

Boston  and  Harvard  been  more  thoroughly  the 
seat  of  cultm-e  and  of  intellectual  power  than  then. 
It  was  a  remarkable  event  for  a  young  man  of 
twenty-eight  to  be  invited  to  come  from  the  "West- 
ern limit  of  civilization  and  preach  the  annual  ser- 
mon before  the  philosophical,  theological,  and 
scholastic  masters  of  the  East.  This  sermon  was 
so  powerful  that  the  association  published  it. 
This  was  his  first  apj)earance  in  print.  So  pro- 
foundly moved  by  this  effort  were  the  chxirches 
of  New  England  that  the  clergymen  generally  gave 
public  thanks  to  the  Head  of  the  Church  for  rais- 
ing up  so  great  a  teacher  and  preacher.  Thus  was 
born  the  fame  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 

It  is  nearly  170  years  since  then.  Science  and 
invention,  enterprise  and  ambition  have  done  great 
things  for  America  and  for  Americans.  We  have 
mighty  universities,  libraries,  and  laboratories,  but 
we  have  no  man  who  thinks  more  clearly,  writes 
more  logically,  speaks  more  vigorously  than  did 
Jonathan  Edwards,  and  we  have  never  had  such  a 
combination  of  spirit  and  power  in  any  other  Amer- 
ican. This  mastery  is  revealing  itself  in  various 
ways  in  hundreds  of  his  descendants  to-day,  and 
it  has  never  ceased  to  do  it  since  his  blood  gave 
tonic  to  the  thought  and  character  of  his  children 
and  his  children's  children. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    INHERITANCE    AND    TRAINING    OF 
MR.    EDWARDS 

No  man  can  have  the  intellectual  power,  nobility 
of  character,  and  personal  grandeur  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  and  transmit  it  to  his  children's  children 
for  a  century  and  a  half  who  has  not  himself  had 
a  great  inheritance.  The  whole  teaching  of  the 
culture  of  animals  and  plants  leaves  no  room  to 
question  the  persistency  of  character,  and  this  is 
so  grandly  exemplified  in  the  descendants  of  Mr. 
Edwards  that  it  is  interesting  to  see  what  inherit- 
ances were  focused  in  him. 

It  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  the  ancestors 
of  Mr.  Edwards  were  cradled  in  the  intellectual 
literary  activities  of  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
The  family  is  of  Welsh  origin  and  can  be  traced 
as  far  as  1282,  when  Edward,  the  conquerer, 
appeared.  His  great-great-grandfather,  Richard 
Edwards,  who  went  from  Wales  to  London  about 
1580,  was  a  clergyman  in  the  Elizabethan  period. 
Those  were  days  which  provided  tonic  for  the 
keenest  spirits  and  brightest  minds  and  pro- 
fessional men  profited  most  from  the  influence  of 
Spencer,  Bacon,  and  Shakespeare. 

(20) 


INHERITANCE   AND    TRAINING  21 

Among  the  first  men  to  come  to  the  new  colonies 
in  New  England  was  "William,  a  son  of  this  clergy- 
man, bom  about  1620,  who  came  to  Hartford, 
where  his  son  Richard,  born  1647,  the  grandfather 
of  Jonathan,  was  an  eminently  prosperous  mei'chant. 
Richard  was  an  only  son.  The  father  of  Jonathan, 
Timothy  Edwards,  was  an  only  son  in  a  family  of 
seven.  Aristocracy  was  at  its  height  in  the  house- 
hold of  the  merchants  of  Hartford  in  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Harvard  was  America's  only  college,  and  it  was 
a  great  event  for  a  young  man  to  go  from  Hart- 
ford to  Harvard,  but  this  Timothy  Edwards  did, 
and  he  took  all  attainable  honors,  graduating  in 
1661,  taking  the  degrees  of  A.B.  and  A.M.  the 
same  day,  "an  uncommon  mark  of  respect  paid 
extraordinary  proficiency  in  learning."  This  bril- 
liant graduate  of  Harvard  was  soon  settled  over  the 
church  at  East  Windsor,  Conn.,  where  he  remained 
sixty-five  years  as  pastor. 

Who  can  estimate  the  inheritance  which  comes 
to  a  child  of  such  a  pastor  who  had  been  born 
in  a  merchant's  home.  In  the  four  generations 
which  stood  behind  Jonathan  Edwards  were  two 
merchants  and  two  preachers,  a  grand  combination 
for  manly  and  intellectual  power. 

In  this  pastor's  home  Jonathan  Edwards  was 
bom  October  5,  1703.  Those  were  days  in  which 
great  men  came  into  the  world.  There  were  bom 
within  fifteen  years  of  Jonathan  Edwards  a  won- 
derful array  of  thinkers  along  religious  and  philo- 


22  JUKES— ED  WARDS 

sophic  lines,  men  who  have  molded  the  thought 
and  lives  of  a  multitude  of  persons.  Among  these 
intellectual  giants  born  within  fifteen  years  of  Mr. 
Edwards  were  John  Wesley,  George  Whitefield, 
Swedenborg,  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  and  Hume. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  full  significance  of 
Mr.  Edwards'  legacy  to  the  world,  it  is  well  to 
study  some  conditions  of  his  life.  It  would  not 
be  easy  to  find  a  man  whose  surroundings  and 
training  in  childhood  were  better  than  those  of 
Jonathan  Edwards.  The  parsonage  on  the  banks 
of  the  Connecticut  was  a  delightful  home.  His 
parents  and  his  grandparents  were  ideal  American 
Christian  educated  persons.  He  was  prepared  for 
college  by  his  father  and  mother.  He  was  a  devout 
little  Christian  before  he  was  twelve  years  of  age. 
When  he  was  but  ten  years  old  he,  with  two  other 
lads  about  his  own  age,  made  a  booth  of  branches 
in  a  retired  spot  in  a  neighboring  wood,  where  the 
three  went  daily  for  a  season  of  prayer. 

He  began  the  study  of  Latin  at  six  and  at  twelve 
had  a  good  j)reparation  for  college  in  Latin,  Greek, 
and  Hebrew,  all  of  which  had  come  from  home 
study.  He  not  only  knew  books,  but  he  knew 
nature  and  loved  her.  From  early  childhood  to 
advanced  years  this  remained  true.  He  entered 
Yale  college  at  twelve  years  of  age.  In  a  letter 
which  he  wrote  while  a  college  freshman  he  speaks 
of  himself  as  a  child.  Not  many  freshmen  take 
that  view  of  themselves,  but  a  lad  of  twelve,  away 
from  home  at  college  could  have  been  little  more 
than  a   child. 


INHERITANCE  AND    TRAINING  23 

He  was  the  fifth  in  a  family  of  eleven  children, 
so  that  he  had  no  lack  of  companionship  from  both 
older  and  younger  sisters.  The  older  sisters  had 
contributed  much  to  his  preparation  for  college. 
They  were  a  never-failing  source  of  inspiration. 
At  fourteen  he  read  in  a  masterly  way  "Locke  on 
the  Human  Understanding."  It  took  a  powerful 
hold  on  his  mind  and  greatly  affected  his  life  In 
a  letter  to  his  father  he  asked  a  special  favor  that 
he  might  have  a  copy  of  "  The  Art  of  Thinking,  ' 
not  because  it  was  necessary  to  his  college  work, 
but  because  he  thought  it  would  be  profitable. 

While  still  in  his  teens  he  wrote  a  series  of 
"Resolutions,"  the  like  of  which  it  would  be  difii- 
cult  to  duplicate  in  the  case  of  any  other  youth. 
These  things  are  dwelt  upon  as  indicating  the  way 
in  which  every  fibre  of  his  being  was  prepared  for 
the  great  moral  and  intellectual  legacy  he  left  his 
childi-en  and  his  children's  children.  Here  are  ten 
of  his  seventy  resolutions: 

Mesolved,  to  do  whatever  I  think  to  be  my  duty, 
and  most  for  the  good  and  advantage  of  mankind 
in  general. 

Mesolved,  so  to  do,  whatever  difficulties  I  meet 
with,  how  many  soever,  and  how  great  soever. 

Resolved,  to  be  continually  endeavoring  to  find 
out  some  new  contrivance  and  invention  to  pro- 
mote the  forementioned  things. 

Resolved,  never  to  lose  one  moment  of  time,  but 
to  improve  it  in  the  most  profitable  way  I  possibly 


24  JUKES— EDWARDS 

Resolved,  to  live  with  all  my  might  while  I  do 
live. 

JResolved,  to  be  endeavoring  to  find  out  fit 
objects  of  charity  and  liberality. 

Resolved,  never  to  do  anything  out  of  revenge. 

Resolved,  never  to  suffer  the  least  motions  of 
anger  towards  irrational  beings. 

Resolved,  never  to  speak  evil  of  any  one,  so  that 
it  shall  tend  to  his  dishonor,  more  or  less,  upon  no 
account  except  for  some  real  good. 

Resolved,  to  maintain  the  strictest  temperance 
in  eating  and  drinking. 

Yale  in  the  days  of  Mr.  Edwards  was  not  the 
Yale  of  the  closing  year  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. It  has  now  2,500  students  and  has  had 
19,000  graduates.  It  had  a  very  humble  begin- 
ning in  March,  1702,  the  year  before  Mr.  Edwards 
was  born.  It  began  with  one  lone  student.  The 
father  of  Jonathan  Edwards  had  been  greatly  inter- 
ested in  the  starting  of  the  college.  In  1701,  Rev. 
Mr.  Russell,  of  Branford,  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  as 
was  the  senior  Edwards,  invited  to  his  home  ten 
other  Connecticut  pastors  of  whom  nine  were 
graduates  of  Harvard.  Each  brought  from  his 
library  some  of  his  most  valuable  books,  and  lay- 
ing them  upon  Mr.  Russell's  table,  said:  "I  give 
these  books  for  the  founding  of  a  college  in  this 
colony."  This  produced  a  profound  impression 
upon  the  clergymen  of  Connecticut,  notably  upon 
the  graduates  of  Harvard.  The  first  year  the  col- 
lege  was   nominally   located   at    Saybrook,    but   as 


INHERITANCE  AND   TRAINING  25 

there  was  only  one  student  he  lived  with  the  presi- 
dent at  Killingworth,  now  Clinton,  nine  miles 
away. 

When  Jonathan  Edwards,  a  lad  of  twelve,  entered 
college,  there  had  been,  all  told,  only  about  fifty 
graduates.  It  was  during  the  time  that  he  was  a 
student  that  the  college  took  the  name  of  Yale. 
The  first  year  he  was  there  the  college  was  in  three 
places  at  the  same  time  because  of  dissensions 
among  the  students,  and  the  very  small  class  gradu- 
ated in  two  places  because  neither  faction  would 
go  to  the  other  place.  In  all  these  agitations 
Mr.  Edwards  took  no  part.  He  simply  devoted 
himself  to  his  studies  and  followed  the  line  of  least 
resistance  so  far  as  taking  sides  in  a  senseless  con- 
troversy was  concerned.  After  graduation  he 
remained  at  Yale  two  years  for  post-gi-aduate  work, 
mostly  in  theology,  and  then  accepted  an  invitation 
to  preach  for  the  leading  Presbyterian  church  in 
New  York  City ;  but  after  eight  months  he  returned 
to  Yale  as  a  tutor  and  remained  two  years. 

At  this  time  he  was  very  severe  in  discipline, 
bending  every  energy  to  securing  the  right  condi- 
tions for  the  most  and  best  work.  This  is  what  he 
wrote  in  his  diary  when  he  was  twenty-one : 

"By  a  sparingness  in  diet,  and  eating,  as  much  as 
may  be,  what  is  light  and  easy  of  digestion,  I  shall 
doubtless  be  able  to  think  more  clearly,  and  shall 
gain  time : 

1.  By  lengthening  out  my  life. 

2.  Shall  need  less  time  for  digestion  after  meals. 


26  JUKES— ED  WARDS 

3.  Shall  be  able  to  study  more  closely,  without 
injury  to  my  health. 

4.  Shall  need  less  time  for  sleep. 

5.  Shall  more  seldom  be  troubled  with  the  head- 
ache." 

Mr.  Edwards  was  twenty-three  years  of  age  when 
he  was  ordained  at  Northampton  as  associate  pastor 
with  his  grandfather  Stoddard,  then  in  his  84th 
year,  and  the  54th  year  of  his  pastorate.  Soon 
after  this  Mr.  Stoddard  died  and  Mr.  Edwards 
became  pastor  in  full  charge  and  remained  for 
twenty-five  years.  He  was  a  great  student  and 
thinker.  He  rose  at  four  o'clock  and  spent  thir- 
teen hours  a  day  in  his  study.  It  is  worth  while 
to  follow  the  personal  intellectual  habits  of  the 
man  whose  descendants  we  are  to  study.  When 
he  was  ready  for  the  consideration  of  a  great  sub- 
ject he  would  set  apart  a  week  for  it  and  mounting 
his  horse  early  Monday  morning  would  start  off  for 
the  hills  and  forests.  When  he  had  thought  him- 
self up  to  a  satisfactory  intensity  he  would  alight, 
fasten  his  horse,  go  off  into  the  woods  and  think 
himself  through  that  particular  stage  of  the  argu- 
ment, then  he  would  pin  a  bit  of  paper  on  some 
particular  place  on  his  coat  as  a  reminder  of  the 
conclusion  he  had  reached.  He  would  then  ride 
on  some  miles  further  and  repeat  the  experience. 
Not  infrequently  he  would  be  gone  the  entire  week 
on  a  thinking  expedition,  returning  with  the  front 
of  his  coat  covered  with  the  scalps  of  intellectual 
victories.     Without  stopping  for  any  domestic  salu- 


INHERITANCE   AND   TRAINING  27 

tations  he  would  go  at  once  to  his  study  and  taking 
off  these  bits  of  paper  in  the  same  order  in  which 
he  had  put  them  on  would  carefully  write  out  his 
argument.  In  nothing  did  Jonathan  Edwards 
stand  out  so  clearly  as  boy,  youth  and  man  as  in 
his  sacrifice  of  every  other  feature  of  his  life  for 
the  attainment  of  power  as  a  thinker. 

Mr.  Edwards  has  gone  into  history  as  a  theolo- 
gian of  the  most  stalwart  character.  It  is  undeni- 
able that  he  preached  the  most  terrific  doctrine 
ever  uttered  by  an  American  leader,  but  this  was 
only  the  logical  result  of  the  intellectual  projection 
of  his  effort  to  make  sacrifices  in  order  to  benefit 
humanity.  As  a  child  he  sacrificed  everything  for 
health  and  virtue  that  he  might  have  influence, 
and  as  a  man  he  knew  no  other  plan  or  purpose  in 
life.  His  masterpiece  is  upon  the  "will"  which  he 
developed  to  the  full  in  himself. 

The  greatest  religious  awakening  that  the  West- 
ern world  has  ever  known  was  started  in  his  church 
at  Northampton,  not  over  ecclesiastical  differences, 
or  theological  discussion  but  over  a  question  of 
morality  among  the  young  people  of  the  town.  It 
had  to  do  with  the  impropriety  of  the  young  ladies 
entertaining  their  gentlemen  friends  on  Sunday 
evenings  and  especially  of  their  allowing  them  to 
remain  to  such  unreasonable  hours.  And  the  issue 
which  ultimately  drove  him  from  his  pastorate, 
after  twenty-five  years  of  service,  by  an  almost 
unanimous  vote  was  not  one  of  ecclesiasticism  or 
theology,  but  of  morals  among  the  young  people. 


28  JUKES— EDWARDS 

He  insisted  upon  vigorous  action  in  relation  to  the 
loose  and  as  he  thought  immoral  reading  of  the 
youth  of  the  town.  As  this  involved  some  promi- 
nent families  he  had  to  retire  from  the  pastorate. 
The  views  of  Mr.  Edwards  on  pastoral  work 
reveal  the  singleness  of  purpose  of  the  man  as  a 
student  and  thinker.  He  never  made  pastoral 
calls.  He  had  no  criticism  to  make  of  those  pastors 
who  had  talent  for  entertaining  people  by  occa- 
sional calls,  but  as  he  had  no  gifts  in  that  direc- 
tion he  regarded  it  advisable  to  use  his  time  in 
cultivating  such  talents  as  he  had.  Whoever 
wished  to  talk  with  him  about  personal,  moral  or 
religious  conditions  found  in  him  a  profitable  coun- 
sellor. In  his  preaching,  which  was  equal  to  any- 
thing America  has  ever  known,  he  made  no  attempt 
to  win  his  hearers  by  tricks  of  oratory  or  by  emo- 
tional appeals,  though  he  had  a  most  fascinating 
personality.  He  was  six  feet  in  height,  slender  in 
form,  with  a  high,  broad  forehead,  eyes  piercing 
and  luminous  and  a  serene  countenance.  In  the 
pulpit  he  was  graceful,  easy,  natural  and  earnest, 
though  he  had  little  action.  He  rested  his  left 
elbow  on  the  pulpit  and  held  his  manuscript  in 
his  left  hand  while  with  his  right  he  turned  the 
leaves.  In  him  were  combined  the  intellectual  and 
moral  vigor  which  are  calculated  to  make  the 
progenitor  of  a  great  family. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    children's    START    IN    LIFE 

The  eleven  children  of  Jonathan  Edwards  had 
an  unenviable  start  in  life  so  far  as  their  environ- 
ment was  concerned.  The  oldest  was  still  in  her 
teens  when  serious  trouble  arose  in  the  parish  at 
Northampton.  Mr.  Edwards  was  pastor  at  North- 
ampton for  twenty-five  years,  and  a  more  fruitful 
pastorate  or  a  more  glorious  ministerial  career  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century  no  man  could  ask.  He 
made  that  church  on  the  frontier  the  largest 
Protestant  church  in  the  world,  and  it  was  the 
most  influential  as  well  as  the  best  known.  There 
began  the  greatest  religious  awakening  of  modern 
times.  In  his  church,  resulting  from  his  preaching, 
began  a  revival  which  stirred  into  activity  every 
church  in  Massachusetts,  every  church  in  the 
colonies,  and  most  of  the  Protestant  churches  of 
Great  Britain  and  Europe. 

After  this  long  and  eminently  successful  pas- 
torate, Mr.  Edwards  preached  a  sermon  about  the 
reading  and  conversation  of  young  people  upon 
subjects  of  questionable  propriety,  which  led  to 
such  local  excitement  that  upon  the  recommenda- 
tion of  an  ecclesiastical  council  he  was  dismissed  by 

(29) 


30  JUKES— EDWARDS 

a  vote  of  200  to  20,  and  the  town  voted  that  lie  be 
not  permitted  on  any  occasion  to  preach  or  lecture 
in  the  church.  Mr.  Edwards  was  wholly  unpre- 
pared financially  for  this  unusual  ecclesiastical  and 
civic  action.  He  had  no  other  means  of  earning  a 
living,  60  that,  until  donations  began  to  come  in 
from  far  and  near,  Mrs.  Edwards,  at  the  age  of 
forty,  the  mother  of  eleven  children  with  the  young- 
est less  than  a  year  old,  was  obliged  to  take  in 
work  for  the  support  of  the  family.  After  a  little 
time  Mr.  Edwards  secured  a  small  mission  charge 
in  an  Indian  village  where  there  were  twelve  white 
and  150  Indian  families.  Here  he  remained  eight 
years  in  quiet  until,  a  few  weeks  before  his  death, 
he  was  called  to  the  presidency  and  pastorate  of 
Princeton,  then  a  young  and  small  college. 

The  last  four  years  of  their  life  at  Northampton 
were  indescribably  trying  to  the  children.  Human 
nature  was  the  same  then  as  now,  and  everyone 
knows  how  heavily  the  public  dislike  of  a  prominent 
man  bears  upon  his  children.  The  conventionalties 
which  keep  adults  within  bound  in  speech  and 
action  are  unknown  to  children,  and  what  the 
parents  say  behind  a  clergyman's  back,  children  say 
to  his  children's  face.  This  period  of  childhood 
social  horror  ended  only  by  removal  to  a  missionary 
parsonage  among  the  Stockbridge  Indians,  where 
they  lived  for  eight  years.  Their  playmates  were 
Indian  children  and  youth.  Half  the  children  of 
the  family  talked  the  Indian  language  as  well  and 
almost  as  much  as  they  did  the  English  language. 


THE  CHILDREN'S  START  IN  LIFE        31 

In  the  years  of  aspiration  these  children  were 
away  from  all  society  life  and  educational  institu- 
tions, in  the  home  of  a  poor  missionary  family 
among  Indians  when  Indian  wars  were  a  reality. 
When  Mr.  Edwards  accepted  gratefully  this  mission 
church  his  oldest  child,  a  daughter,  was  twenty- 
two,  his  youngest  son  was  less  than  a  year  old.  All 
of  the  boys  and  three  of  the  girls  were  under  twelve 
years  of  age  when  they  went  to  the  Indian  village, 
and  all  but  one  were  under  twenty.  When  their 
missionary  home  was  broken  up  five  of  them  were 
still  under  twenty,  so  that  the  children's  inheritance 
was  not  of  wealth,  of  literary  or  scholastic  envi- 
ronment, or  of  cultured  or  advantageous  society. 
Everything  tends  to  show  how  completely  Mr.  Ed- 
wards' sons  and  daughters  were  left  to  develop 
and  improve  their  inheritance  of  intellectual,  moral, 
and  religious  aspiration. 

In  these  years  Mr.  Edwards  was  writing  the 
works  which  will  make  him  famous  for  centuries. 
One  of  the  daughters  married  Rev.  Aaron  Burr,  the 
president  of  Princeton,  then  a  very  small  institution. 
Upon  the  death  of  this  son-in-law,  Mr.  Edwards  was 
chosen  to  succeed  him,  but  while  at  Princeton, 
before  he  had  fairly  entered  upon  his  duties  at 
the  college,  he  died  of  smallpox.  His  widowed 
daughter,  who  cared  for  him,  died  a  few  days  later 
leaving  two  children,  and  his  widow,  who  came  for 
the  grandchildren,  soon  followed  the  husband  and 
daughter  to  the  better  land. 


32  JUKES— ED  WA  RDS 

Mr.  Edwards  died  at  fifty-six,  and  his  widow  a  few 
weeks  later.  Both  died  away  from  home,  for  the 
family  was  still  among  the  Stockbridge  Indians. 
The  oldest  son  was  but  twenty,  and  there  were  five 
children  younger  than  he.  The  youngest  son  was 
eight  and  the  other  only  thirteen.  To  make  the  pic- 
ture more  clear  it  must  be  understood  that  to  these 
six  orphans,  under  twenty-one,  there  came  at  the 
time  of  their  father's  and  mother's  deaths  two  little 
orphans  aged  four  and  two  respectively,  Sarah  Burr 
and  her  brother  Aaron.  Here  was  a  large  family 
from  which  father  and  mother,  older  sister  and 
brother-in-law  had  been  taken  almost  at  a  single 
blow,  with  two  extra  orphans  to  care  for. 

And  with  all  this  there  was  no  adequate  financial 
inheritance.  The  inventory  of  Jonathan  Edwards' 
property  is  interesting.  Among  the  live  stock,  which 
included  horses  and  cows,  was  a  slave  upon  whom  a 
moderate  value  was  placed.  The  slave  was  named 
Titus,  and  he  was  rated  under  "quick  stock"  and  not 
"live  stock,"  at  a  value  of  $150.  The  silver  was 
inventoried  as  a  tankard  valued  at  $60,  a  can  and 
porringer  at  $47,  and  various  other  articles  valued 
at  $85.  The  chief  material  legacy  was  his  library, 
which  was  inventoried  as  consisting  of  301  volumes, 
536  pamphlets,  forty-eight  maps,  thirty  unpublished 
manuscripts  and  1,074  manuscript  sermons  prepared 
for  the  printer.     It  was  valued  at  $415. 

If  Jonathan  Edwards  did  not  leave  a  large  finan- 
cial legacy,  he  did  impart  to  his  children  an  intel- 
lectual   capacity   and  vigor,   moral  character,  and 


THE   CHILDREN'S  START  IN  LIFE         33 

devotion  to  training  which  have  projected  them- 
selves through  eight  generations  without  losing  the 
strength  and  force  of  their  great  ancestor.  Of 
the  three  sons  and  eight  daughters  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  there  was  not  one,  nor  a  husband  or  wife 
of  one,  whose  character  and  ability,  whose  purpose 
and  achievement  were  not  a  credit  to  this  godly- 
man.  Of  the  seventy-five  grandchildren,  with  their 
husbands  and  wives,  there  was  but  one  for  whom 
an  apology  may  be  offered,  and  nearly  every  one 
was  exceptionally  strong  in  scholarship  and  moral 
force. 

We  have  paused  long  enough  on  the  threshold 
of  the  descendants  of  Jonathan  Edwards.  We  have 
seen  the  estimate  in  which  he  was  held  by  his  con- 
temporaries at  home  and  abroad,  and  by  close  stu- 
dents of  the  history  of  his  times.  We  have  seen 
what  he  inherited  and  by  what  training  and  in 
what  environment  he  was  developed.  We  have 
also  seen  the  terrible  strain  to  which  his  children 
were  subjected  in  childhood  from  lack  of  school 
privileges  and  pleasing  social  conditions.  It  re- 
mains to  be  seen  what  kind  of  men  and  women 
these  children  became  with  childhood  disadvan- 
tages, but  with  a  grand  inheritance  and  the  best  of 
home  training. 

Remember  the  size,  ages,  and  financial  condition 
of  the  family  when  the  father  died — the  sons  being 
aged  eight,  thirteen  and  twenty — and  then  con- 
sider the  fact  that  the  three  sons  graduated  from 
Princeton,  and  five  of  the  daughters  married  college 
3 


34  JUKES— ED  WA  RDS 

graduates,  three  of  them  of  Yale  and  one  each  of 
Harvard  and  Princeton.  A  man  might  well  be 
content  to  die  without  lands  or  gold  when  eight 
sons  and  sons-in-laws  were  to  be  men  of  such 
capacity,  character,  and  training  as  are  found  in 
this  family. 

They  were  not  merely  college  graduates,  but 
they  were  eminent  men.  One  held  the  position  of 
president  of  Princeton  and  one  of  Union  College, 
four  were  judges,  two  were  members  of  the  Conti- 
nental Congress,  one  was  a  member  of  the  gover- 
nor's council  in  Massachusetts,  one  was  a  member 
of  the  Massachusetts  war  commission  in  the  Revo- 
lutionary war,  one  was  a  state  senator,  one  was 
president  of  the  Connecticut  house  of  representa- 
tives, three  were  officers  in  the  Revolutionary  war, 
one  was  a  member  of  the  famous  constitutional  con- 
vention out  of  which  the  United  States  was  born, 
one  was  an  eminent  divine  and  pastor  of  the  his- 
toric North  church  of  New  Haven,  and  one  was 
the  first  grand  master  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of 
Masons  in  Connecticut.  This  by  no  means  exhausts 
the  useful  and  honorable  official  positions  occupied 
by  the  eight  sons  and  sons-in-law  of  Jonathan 
Edwards,  and  it  makes  no  account  of  their  writings, 
of  noted  trials  that  they  conducted,  but  it  gives 
some  hint  of  the  pace  which  Mr.  Edwards'  children 
set  for  the  succeeding  generations.  It  should  be 
said  that  the  daughters  were  every  way  worthy 
of  distinguished  husbands,  and  it  ought  also  to 
be  said   that    the  wives  of   the   sons  were  worthy 


THE  CHILDREN'S  START  IN  LIFE        35 

of  these  men  in  intellectual  force  and  moral  qual- 
ities. 

Contrast  this  group  of  sixteen  men  and  women 
with  the  five  sons  of  Max  and  the  women  with 
whom  they  lived.  In  this  group  there  was  not  a 
strain  of  industry,  virtue,  or  scholarship.  They 
were  licentious,  ignorant,  profane,  lacking  ambition 
to  keep  them  out  of  poverty  and  crime.  They 
drifted  into  whatever  it  was  easiest  to  do  or  to  be. 
Midday  and  midnight,  heaven  and  its  opposite, 
present  no  sharper  contrasts  than  the  children  and 
the  children-in-law  of  Jonathan  Edwards  and  of 
Max. 

The  two  men  were  born  in  rural  communities, 
they  both  lived  on  the  frontier;  but  the  one  was 
bom  in  a  Christian  home,  was  the  son  of  a  clergy- 
man, of  a  highly  educated  man  who  took  the 
highest  honors  Harvard  could  give,  was  himself 
highly  educated  in  home,  school,  and  at  Yale  Col- 
lege, always  associated  with  pure-minded,  earnest 
persons,  and  devoted  his  thought  and  activity  to 
benefiting  mankind. 

Max  was  the  opposite  of  all  this.  There  is  no 
knowledge  of  his  childhood  or  of  his  parentage. 
He  was  not  bad,  as  bad  men  go;  he  was  jolly, 
could  tell  a  good  story,  though  they  were  always 
off  color,  could  trap  unwary  animals  skillfully,  was  a 
fairly  good  shot ;  but  no  one  was  the  better  for  any- 
thing that  he  ever  said,  thought,  or  did.  Jollity, 
shiftlessness,  and  lack  of  purpose  in  one  man  have 
given  to  the  world  a  family  of  1,200,  mostly  pau- 


36  JUKES— EDWARDS 

pers  and  criminals;  while  Mr.  Edwards,  who  never 
amused  any  one,  who  was  always  chaste,  earnest, 
and  noble,  has  given  to  the  world  a  family  of 
more  than  1,400  of  the  world's  noblemen,  who 
have  magnified  strength  and  beauty  all  over  the 
land,  illustrating  grandly  these  beautiful  lines  of 
Lowell : 

"Be  noble  !  and  the  nobleness  that  lies 
In  other  men,  sleeping,  but  never  dead. 
Will  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thine  own. " 


CHAPTER  V 

MRS.    EDWARDS    AND    HOME    TRAINING 

Much  of  the  capacity  and  talent,  intensity  and 
character  of  the  more  than  1,400  of  the  Edwards 
family  is  due  to  Mrs.  Edwards.  None  of  the 
brothers  or  sisters  of  Jonathan  Edwards  had 
families  with  any  such  marvelous  record  as  his,  and 
to  his  wife  belongs  not  a  little  of  the  credit. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-four  Mr.  Edwards  was  mar- 
ried to  Sarah  Pierrpont,  aged  seventeen.  She  had 
an  inheritance  even  more  refined  and  vigorous 
than  that  of  Mr.  Edwards.  She  was  descended  on 
her  father's  side  from  the  choicest  of  the  Pierrpont 
family  of  England  and  New  England.  Her  father 
was  one  of  the  most  famous  of  New  Haven  clergy- 
men, one  of  the  principal  founders,  and  a  trustee 
and  lecturer  of  Yale  College.  On  her  mother's 
side  she  was  a  granddaughter  of  Rev.  Thomas 
Hooker,  of  Hartford,  "the  father  of  the  Connecti- 
cut churches,"  and  one  of  the  grand  men  in  early 
American  history. 

Personally,  she  was  so  beautiful  and  so  noble- 
minded  that  at  the  age  of  thirteen  she  was  known 
far  and  near  for  her  Christian  character  and  excep- 
tional ability.     "While  she  was  still  but  thirteen  and 

(37J 


38  JUKES— ED  WA  RDS 

Mr.  Edwards  twenty,  he  wrote  in  a  purely  disinter- 
ested way  of  the  remarkable  girl:  "She  is  of  a 
wonderful  sweetness,  calmness,  and  universal  benevo- 
lence of  mind.  She  will  sometimes  go  about  from 
place  to  place  singing  sweetly;  and  seems  to  be 
always  full  of  joy  and  pleasure ;  and  no  one  knows 
for  what." 

Mr.  Edwards  was  desirious  of  being  married  when 
he  went  to  Northampton  as  associate  pastor  with 
his  grandfather,  Dr.  Stoddard.  Miss  PieiTpont 
was  only  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  she  declined  to 
be  married  until  she  was  seventeen.  He  insisted, 
but  she  persisted  in  her  refusal. 

Mrs.  Edwards  lived  in  her  children.  To  her  hus- 
band came  honor  and  glory  in  his  lifetime,  but  to 
her  came  denial,  toil  and  care.  At  eighteen,  this 
young,  beautiful,  brilliant  wife  became  a  mother, 
and  until  she  was  forty,  there  was  ntver  a  period 
of  two  years  in  which  a  child  was  not  born  to  them, 
and  no  one  of  the  eleven  children  died  until  after 
the  last  child  was  born.  It  was  a  home  of  little 
children.  Her  husband  had  no  care  for  the  house- 
hold and  she  wished  him  to  have  none.  It  was  her 
insistence  that  he  should  have  thirteen  hours  of 
every  twenty-four  for  his  study.  Whatever  may 
have  been  the  contribution  of  Mr.  Edwards  to  the 
inheritance  of  the  family,  they  owed  the  charming 
environment  of  the  home  to  their  mother. 

This  was  a  delightful  home,  as  many  persons  have 
testified  who  knew  it.  I  saw  recently  the  diary  of 
the  famous  George  Whitefield,  where  he  wrote  that 


MRS.  EDWARDS  AND  HOME  TRAINING     39 

he  sometimes  wondered  if  it  was  not  the  Lord's 
will  that  he  should  marry,  that  he  might  thereby 
be  more  useful,  and  that  if  it  was  the  Lord's  will 
that  he  should  marry,  he  wished  to  be  reconciled 
thereto,  but  he  did  hope  that  the  Lord  would  send 
him  as  a  wife  such  a  woman  as  Mrs.  Edwards, 
whom  he  considered  the  most  beautiful  and  noble 
wife  for  a  Christian  minister  that  he  had  ever 
known.  If  there  be  a  more  charming  tribute  to 
woman  than  this,  I  have  not  seen  it. 

In  view  of  the  character  of  her  children  and  their 
great  success  in  life,  it  may  be  interesting  to  know 
how  she  brought  up  the  children,  of  whom  there 
were  so  many,  and  for  which  the  schools  did  so 
little.  This  is  the  testimony  of  one  who  knew  of 
her  home  life  well :  "  She  had  an  excellent  way  of 
governing  her  children;  she  knew  how  to  make 
them  regard  and  obey  her  cheerfully.  She  seldom 
punished  them,  and  in  speaking  to  them  used  gen- 
tle and  pleasant  words.  When  she  had  occasion  to 
reprove  or  rebuke,  she  would  do  it  in  a  few  words, 
without  warmth  and  noise,  and  with  all  calmness 
and  gentleness  of  mind.  In  her  directions  and 
reproofs  of  matters  of  importance,  she  would  ad- 
dress herself  to  the  reason  of  her  children,  that 
they  might  not  only  know  her  inclination  and  will, 
but  at  the  same  time  be  convinced  of  the  reason- 
ableness of  it.  She  had  need  to  speak  but  once 
and  she  was  obeyed;  murmuring  and  answering 
again  were  not  known  among  them.  In  their  man- 
ners  they   were    uncommonly    respectful    to    their 


40  JUKES— ED  WA  RBS 

parents.  When  their  parents  came  into  the  room, 
they  all  rose  instinctively  from  their  seats  and  never 
resumed  them  until  their  parents  were  seated;  and 
when  either  parent  was  speaking,  no  matter  with 
whom  they  had  been  conversing,  they  were  all 
immediately  silent. 

"Quarreling  and  contention  were  in  her  family 
wholly  unknown.  She  carefully  observed  the  first 
appearance  of  resentment  and  ill-will  in  her  young 
children  towards  any  person  whatever,  and  did  not 
connive  at  it,  but  was  careful  to  show  her  displeas- 
ure, and  suppress  it  to  the  utmost;  yet  not  by 
angry,  wrathful  words. 

"Her  system  of  discipline  began  at  a  very  early 
age,  and  it  was  her  rule  to  resist  the  first,  as  well 
as  every  subsequent  exhibition  of  temper  or  disobe- 
dience in  the  child,  however  young,  until  its  will 
was  brought  into  submission  to  the  will  of  the 
parents." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  all  this  added  materi- 
ally to  the  good  inheritance  of  the  children. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CAPACITY,    CHARACTER    AND    TRAINING 

In  view  of  what  has  been  learned  regarding  Jona- 
than Edwards,  his  ancestors  and  his  children,  his 
grandchildren  might  have  found  some  excuse  for 
presuming  upon  the  capacity  and  character  which 
they  inherited.  In  their  veins  was  the  blood  of 
famous  lines  of  noble  men  and  women  ;  the  blood 
of  Edwards,  Stoddard,  Pierrpont,  and  Hooker  was 
thrilling  in  their  thought  and  intensifying  their 
character.  They  had  inherited  capacity  and  char- 
acter at  their  best,  but  they  did  not  presume  upon 
it.  If  ever  inheritance  would  justify  indifference 
to  training,  it  was  in  the  case  of  the  grandchildren 
of  Jonathan  Edwards,  but  they  were  far  from  indif- 
ferent to  their  responsibility. 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  "family  of  Jona- 
than Edwards"  includes  not  only  his  descendants, 
but  the  men  who  married  into  the  family  and  whose 
childi-en  became  descendants  of  Mr.  Edwards.  At 
first  this  may  not  seem  the  proper  interpretation, 
but  there  is  no  other  that  is  legitimate.  In  the 
case  of  the  "Jukes"  Mr.  Dugdale  includes  in  the 
family  both  the  men  and  the  women  who  married 
into  the  family,  biit   in  the    case  of   Mr.  Edwards 

(413 


42  JUKES— EDWARDS 

there  is  no  call  to  include  the  women  who  thus 
came  into  the  family,  and  it  would  have  magnified 
the  study  needlessly. 

Until  quite  recently  there  has  been  no  way  to 
discover  the  standing  of  married  women  in  Ameri- 
can life  except  as  we  know  the  social,  scholastic, 
and  professional  position  of  their  husbands.  In 
most  families  a  son-in-law  becomes  a  representative 
factor  of  a  family.  Therefore,  whenever  the  "Ed- 
wards family"  is  spoken  of  it  includes  the  sons-in- 
law,  but  it  does  not  include  the  daughters-in-law, 
nor  does  it  go  beyond  Jonathan  Edwards  to  include 
his  brothers  and  sisters  or  their  descendants. 

The  "Jukes"  had  no  inherited  capacity  or  train- 
ing upon  which  they  could  safely  presume.  Their 
only  chance  lay  in  nursing  every  germ  of  hope  by 
means  of  industry  and  education,  through  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  shop,  the  training  of  the  schools,  and 
the  inspiration  of  the  church.  Did  they  appreciate 
this  ?  Far  from  it.  Instead  of  developing  capacity 
by  training,  not  one  of  the  1,200  secured  even  a 
moderate  education,  and  only  twenty  of  them  ever 
had  a  trade,  and  ten  of  these  learned  it  in  the 
state  prison. 

On  the  other  hand,  although  the  Edwards  family 
inherited  abundant  capacity  and  character,  every 
child  has  been  educated  from  early  childhood.  Not 
all  of  the  college  members  of  the  family  have  been 
discovered,  and  yet  among  the  men  alone  I  have 
found  285  graduates  and  a  surprisingly  large  num- 
ber of  these  have  supplemented  the  college  course 


CAPACI'jy,    CHARACTER.    TRAINING         43 

with  post-graduate  or  professional  study.  Just  as 
the  "Jukes"  have  intensified  their  degeneracy  by 
neglect,  the  Edwards  family  has  magnified  capacity 
and  character  by  industry  and  education. 

Among  the  285  college  gi-aduates  of  the  Edwards 
family  there  are  thirteen  presidents  of  colleges  and 
other  higher  institutions  of  learning,  sixty-five  pro- 
fessors of  colleges,  and  many  principals  of  impor- 
tant academies  and  seminaries.  Forty-five  Ameri- 
can and  foreign  colleges  and  universities  have  this 
family  among  the  alumni.  From  this  family  have 
come  presidents  for  Yale,  Princeton,  Union,  Hamil- 
ton, Amherst,  the  University  of  California,  the  Uni- 
versity of  Tennessee,  the  famous  Litchfield  (Conn.) 
law  school,  the  Columbia  law  school,  and  Andover 
Theological  Seminary.  Among  these  are  such  men 
as  President  Timothy  Dwight,  Yale,  1794-1817; 
Theodore  Dwight  Woolsey,  Yale,  1846-71 ;  Timothy 
Dwight,  Yale,  1886-97;  Jonathan  Edwards  (Jr.), 
Union,  1799-1801;  Daniel  C.  Gilman,  Johns  Hop- 
kins; Merrill  E.  Gates,  Amherst;  and  Edwards  A. 
Park,  Andover. 


CHAPTER  VII 

AARON    BURR 

Undoubtedly  some  readers  are  already  impatient 
at  the  delay  in  dealing  with  Aaron  Burr.  There 
was  a  time  when  it  was  the  fashion  to  refer  to 
Colonel  Burr  as  sufficiently  infamous  to  prove  that 
heredity  was  of  no  apj)reciable  value.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  it  is  rather  refreshing  to  have  one  upon 
whom  the  imagination  can  play.  It  simply  inten- 
sifies the  white  light  of  the  rest  of  the  record. 

Colonel  Burr  was  not  a  saint  after  the  model  pre- 
sented by  his  father,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Aaron  Burr,  the 
godly  president  of  Princeton;  by  his  grandfather, 
Jonathan  Edwards ;  or  by  at  least  1,394  of  the  other 
members  of  the  family  of  Mr.  Edwards.  There  is 
no  purpose  to  give  him  saintly  enthronement,  but 
it  may  not  be  amiss  to  suggest  that  the  abuse  of 
him  has  been  overdone. 

Colonel  Aaron  Burr  died  at  eighty  after  thirty 
years  of  the  worst  treatment  ever  meted  out  to  a 
man  against  whom  the  bitterest  enemies  and  the 
most  brilliant  legal  talent  could  bring  no  charge 
that  would  stand  in  the  eyes  of  the  law.  I  have 
no  purpose  to  lessen  the  verdict  of  prejudice,  for 
the  study  of  the  Edwards  family   is  all   the   more 

(44) 


AARON  BURR  45 

fascinating  because  of  one  such  meteor  of  error. 
It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  a  study  of 
the  last  thirty  years  of  Colonel  Burr's  life  makes 
one  more  exasperated  with  human  nature  under  a 
political  whip  than  with  Colonel  Burr's  mistake. 

At  forty-nine  Aaron  Burr  was  one  of  the  most 
brilliant,  most  admired,  and  beloved  men  in  the 
United  States.  For  thirty  years  his  had  been  a 
career  with  few  American  parallels.  He  had  but 
one  real  and  intense  enemy,  and  that  man  had 
hated  him  all  those  years.  Alexander  Hamilton 
had  never  missed  an  opportunity  to  vilify  Mr.  Burr, 
and  his  attack  had  never  been  resented.  Calmly 
had  Aaron  Burr  pursued  his  upward  and  onward 
course,  simply  smiling  at  the  vituperation  of  Hamil- 
ton. Could  those  two  men  have  agreed,  they 
would  have  been  the  greatest  leaders  any  nation 
ever  had.  Their  hatred  was  as  expensive  as  was 
that  of  Blaine  and  Conklin  in  after  years. 

Every  age  must  have  a  political  scapegoat,  one 
upon  whose  head  is  placed  symbolically  the  sins  of 
the  period,  and  after  he  is  sent  into  the  wilderness 
of  obscurity  it  becomes  a  social  and  political  crime 
to  befriend  him.  There  have  been  several  such  in 
our  country's  history,  and  there  will  be  others. 
Aaron  Burr  suffered  more  than  any  other  simply  be- 
cause the  glory  from  which  he  departed  was  greater. 

On  March  2,  1805,  Aaron  Burr,  vice-president  of 
the  United  States,  and  president  of  the  senate, 
retired  from  the  chair  two  days  before  his  term 
expired.     He  made  a  farewell  address,  which  pro- 


46  J  UKES— EDWARDS 

duced  a  greater  impression  upon  that  body  than 
any  other  words  ever  spoken  there.  Every  senator 
was  weeping,  and  for  a  long  time  no  one  covild 
leave  his  seat  or  propose  any  business.  It  was  a 
sight  for  the  nation  to  look  upon  and  wonder. 
For  fourteen  years  he  had  been  one  of  the  most 
conspicuous  members  of  that  body. 

Aaron  Burr's  ultimate  ruin  was  wrought  by  his 
colonization  experiment  in  Louisiana.  In  popular 
opinion,  there  was  something  traitorous  in  that  un- 
successful venture  of  his.  In  1805  Mr.  Burr  paid 
$50,000  for  400,000  acres  of  land  which  had  been 
purchased  of  Spain  in  1800,  before  it  passed  to 
France  and  then  to  the  United  States  in  1803.  Of 
the  motive  of  Colonel  Burr  we  must  always  be 
ignorant ;  that  he  was  not  guilty  of  any  crime  in 
connection  therewith  we  are  certain,  for  the  highest 
tribunal  of  the  land  acquitted  him.  President  Jef- 
ferson and  the  entire  political  force  of  the  adminis- 
tration were  bent  upon  his  conviction,  but  Chief 
Justice  Marshall,  as  capable,  honorable,  and  incor- 
ruptible a  jurist  as  the  country  has  known,  would 
not  have  it  so.  Unfortunately,  the  brilliant  arraign- 
ment by  William  Wirt  was  printed  and  read  for 
half  a  century,  while  the  calm  rulings  of  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  never  went  beyond  the  court  room. 

Why  did  a  man  of  his  capabilities,  upon  retire- 
ment from  the  vice-presidency,  attempt,  at  fifty 
years  of  age  to  start  life  anew  under  such  unprom- 
ising conditions?  Because  he  was  suddenly  politi- 
cally  and   professionally   ruined.     Ruined    because 


AAROK  BURR  47 

he  had  killed  Alexander  Hamilton  in  a  duel.  "Why 
did  he  do  it?     It  is  a  long  story. 

To  make  it  intelligent,  his  life  must  be  reviewed. 
After  a  brilliant  military  career,  which  began  when 
he  was  nineteen  and  left  him  an  heroic  colonel,  he 
studied  law  and  practiced  in  Albany.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-eight  he  was  a  leader  in  the  New  York 
legislature,  and  was  chairman  of  the  most  import- 
ant committees,  always  with  the  people,  against 
the  aristocracy — an  unpardonable  mistake  in  those 
times.  At  thirty-four  he  was  attorney-general  of  the 
state,  and  his  great  decisions  were  accepted  by  all 
other  states.  At  thirty-four  he  established  the 
Manhattan  bank  of  New  York  city.  He  was  the 
only  man  with  the  ability  or  courage  to  find  a  way 
to  establish  a  bank  for  the  people,  and  the  solidity 
of  that  institution  for  a  hundi'ed  years  is  an  all- 
suflScient  vindication  of  his  plan.  At  thirty-five  he 
was  appointed  and  confirmed  as  a  supreme  court 
judge  of  New  York  state,  but  he  declined  the 
honor,  and  was  the  same  year  elected  to  the  United 
States  senate.  He  was  re-elected,  serving  in  all 
fourteen  years. 

At  the  second  presidential  election  Senator  Burr 
received  one  vote  in  the  electoral  college,  at  the 
the  third  he  received  thirty,  and  in  the  fourth 
received  seventy-three.  Jefferson  also  received 
seventy-three  and  the  election  was  thrown  into  the 
house.  This  was  in  1800  and  Mr.  Burr  was  forty- 
years  of  age.  The  choice  lay  with  New  York, 
which  could  be  carried  by  no  man  but  Aai-on  Burr. 


48  JUKES— EDWARDS 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  the  leader  of  the  Fed- 
eralists. He  also  was  of  New  York.  It  was  a 
battle  of  the  giants.  These  two  men  measured 
swords.  The  presidency  of  the  United  States  was 
the  prize  both  parties — the  Federalists  and  the 
Democrats — were  seeking.  New  York  had  always 
been  with  the  Federalists.  In  this  great  struggle 
it  went  against  Hamilton  and  for  Burr.  This  ended 
the  political  career  of  Hamilton,  and  would  have 
done  so  had  he  lived  longer.  He  was  one  of 
America's  greatest  statesmen,  bvit  one  of  the 
poorest  politicians.  No  one  could  get  along  with 
him  but  Washington,  and  when  he  died  the  politi- 
cal end  of  Hamilton  came. 

Jefferson  and  Burr  each  received  seventy-three 
votes  for  president,  and  Adams  received  sixty-five. 
New  York  had  twelve  votes,  so  that  if  she  had 
remained  with  the  Federalist  candidate  Adams,  he 
would  have  won,  seventy-seven  to  sixty-one.  This 
defeat  angered  Hamilton  beyond  endurance.  He 
and  Burr  had  been  deadly  rivals  for  thirty  years, 
first  for  the  love  of  woman,  then  for  military  pre- 
ferment, and  later  in  the  political  arena.  When 
Burr  established  the  Manhattan  bank,  Hamilton's 
brother-in-law,  inspired  by  Hamilton,  attacked 
Burr's  motive,  with  the  result  of  a  duel  in  which 
neither  was  harmed. 

Notwithstanding  Hamilton's  greatness,  he  was 
always  in  trouble  with  men  and  women.  He  never 
ceased  his  abuse  of  Burr,  whose  election  as  senator 
angered  him.     Later,  when  Burr  was  the  choice  of 


AARON  BURR  49 

congress  as  minister  to  Paris,  backed  especially 
by  Madison  and  Monroe,  Hamilton  succeeded  in 
compassing  his  defeat.  Again,  when  Adams 
had  decided  upon  some  important  appointment 
for  Burr,  Hamilton  succeeded  in  defeating  him. 
This  made  Burr's  promotion  to  the  vice-presi- 
dency and  his  own  downfall  the  more  exaspera- 
ting to  Hamilton. 

Foui-  years  passed.  Burr  won  high  honor  as 
president  of  the  senate,  and  the  party  nominated 
him  for  governor  of  New  York  with  practical  una- 
nimity. This  was  too  much  for  Hamilton,  who  had 
nothing  to  lose  by  indulging  his  enmity  to  the  full. 
The  campaign  against  Burr  was  one  of  the  basest 
on  record.  It  was  one  of  vilification.  Being  vice- 
president,  he  was  at  a  disadvantage  when  it  came 
to  conducting  the  campaign,  and  he  was  defeated. 

There  were  many  features  of  this  campaign  that 
were  peculiarly  annoying  to  Burr,  and  for  the 
second  time  in  his  life  he  resorted  to  the  duel,  and 
Hamilton  was  killed.  Had  Burr  died  in  that  hour, 
history  would  have  a  different  place  for  him  as  well 
as  for  Hamilton,  but  in  his  death  Hamilton  was 
glorified.  The  most  preposterous  stories,  such  as 
his  firing  into  the  air,  were  invented  and  believed. 
The  time  and  the  conditions  were  as  bad  as  the}- 
could  be  for  Burr.  The  North  never  condoned  a 
duel  that  ended  fatally,  and  then  less  than  ever.  I 
have  no  word  of  apology  to  offer  for  the  duel.  It 
was  weakness,  as  it  always  is,  and  from  it  came  all 
the  ills  that  befell  Aaron  Burr. 
4 


o  0  JUKES—  ED  WA  BD.^ 

Censure  him  all  you  choose,  and  then  look  at  the 
conditions  of  his  childhood  and  wonder  that  he 
lived  to  fifty  years  of  age  before  the  lack  of  early 
care  brought  forth  its  fruit.  Aaron  Burr  received 
as  good  an  intellectual  and  moral  legacy  as  any  one 
of  the  1,400  of  the  Edwards  family.  His  father 
and  mother,  grandfather  and  grandmother  would 
have  given  him  as  good  an  environment  and  train- 
ing as  any  one  of  them  enjoyed,  but — his  father 
died  before  he  was  two  years  old,  and  his  mother, 
grandfather,  and  grandmother  died  when  he  was 
two  years  old,  and  he  and  his  sister,  four  years  old, 
went  to  live  with  his  oldest  uncle,  Timothy  Ed- 
wards, who  was  only  twenty.  This  uncle  was  also 
bringing  up  two  younger  brothers  aged  eight  and 
thirteen,  and  three  young  sisters.  While  Timothy 
Edwards  made  an  eminently  worthy  citizen  and 
reared  a  family  of  noble  sons  and  daughters,  he 
was  not  prepared  at  nineteen  to  support  so  many 
younger  children  and  give  a  two-year-old  boy  the 
attention  that  he  needed. 

At  twelve  years  of  age  Aaron  Burr  went  to  col- 
lege, and  after  this  time  he  never  had  even  the 
apology  of  a  home,  indeed  he  never  had  a  home 
such  as  his  nature  demanded.  There  are  three  pic- 
tures of  the  child  which  satisfy  me  that  the  right 
training  would  have  enabled  Aaron  Burr  to  go  into 
history  as  the  noblest  Roman  of  them  all. 

At  four  years  of  age  he  was  at  school,  where  the 
treatment  was  so    severe    that   he    ran   awav  from 


AARON  BURR  51 

school  and  home  and  could  not  be  found  for  three 
days. 

At  seven  years  of  age  he  was  up  in  a  cherry  tree 
when  a  very  prim  and  disagreeable  spinster  came  to 
call,  and  he  indulged  in  the  childish  luxury  of 
throwing  cherries  at  her.  She  sought  "Uncle  Tim- 
othy," who  took  the  seven-year-old  child  into  the 
house,  gave  him  a  long  and  severe  lecture,  offered  a 
long  prayer  of  warning,  and  then  "licked  me  like  a 
sack." 

At  ten  years  of  age  he  ran  away  from  the  severity 
of  his  uncle,  and  went  to  New  York  and  shipped  as 
cabin  boy.  His  uncle  followed  him,  and  when  the 
little  fellow  saw  him  he  went  to  the  top  of  the 
masthead  and  refused  to  come  down  until  his 
uncle  agreed  not  to  punish  him.  It  is  easy  to  see 
that  his  uncle  aroused  in  him  all  the  characteristics 
that  should  have  been  calmed,  and  gave  him  none  of 
that  care  which  father  or  mother  would  have  pro- 
vided him. 

At  twelve  he  entered  Princeton,  and  graduated 
with  honors  at  sixteen.  College  life  had  its  tempta- 
tions, but  he  conducted  himself  with  unusual  deco- 
rum, and  upon  graduation  went  to  study  with  an 
eminent  clergyman.  Apparently  he  expected  to 
enter  the  ministry,  but  the  theology  of  Dr.  Bellamy 
did  not  commend  itself  to  him,  and  even  less  did 
the  spifit  with  which  the  theologian  met  his  queries, 
so  that  for  the  remaining  sixty  odd  years  of  life  he 
would  not  talk  about  theology.  Here  was  a  brilliant 
lad,  fresh  from  college,  with  the  inheritance  of  Burr 


52  J  UKES—  ED  WA  RDS 

and  Edwards,  who  might  have  been  led  into  a 
glorious  career,  but  was  instead  repelled,  and  went 
back  to  his  uncle's  home,  with  no  profession  and 
no  plan  for  life,  with  no  one  to  advise  him. 

The  battle  of  Bunker  hUl  aroused  Burr  to  patri- 
otic purpose,  and,  though  but  nineteen,  he  started 
for  Cambridge  to  enlist.  He  was  stricken  with 
fever,  however,  and  before  he  was  recovered  he 
heard  of  Arnold's  proposed  expedition  to  Quebec, 
and,  though  he  had  better  be  in  bed,  he  took  his 
musket  and  walked  to  Newburyport,  30  miles,  in 
season  to  ship  with  the  troops.  Two  men  were 
there  ahead  of  him  awaiting  his  arrival  with  instruc- 
tions from  his  uncle  to  bring  him  back  to  New 
Jersey.  This  was  too  much  for  young  Burr,  who 
did  not  recognize  the  right  of  his  uncle  to  interfere, 
and  he  expressed  his  mind  so  vigorously  as  to  com- 
mand the  admiration  of  the  soldiers  and  arouse  the 
fears  of  the  two  messengers,  who  returned  without 
him.  This  was  the  last  of  his  uncle's  interference. 
"Who  that  reads  of  the  childhood  life  of  this  orphan 
can  wonder  that  he  lacked  patience  under  the  severe 
reverse  of  political  fortune  at  fifty  years  of  age? 
That  he  is  the  one  illustrious  exception  among  the 
1,400  need  cause  no  surprise. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


CONTRASTS 


It  has  already  been  emphasized  that  the  Jukes 
always  mingled  blood  of  their  own  quality  in  their 
descendants,  and  that  the  Edwards  family  has 
invariably  chosen  blood  of  the  same  general  tone 
and  force.  Who  can  think  for  a  moment  that  the 
Jukes  would  have  remained  on  so  low  a  level  if  the 
Edwards  blood  had  been  mixed  with  theirs,  or 
that  the  Edwards  would  have  retained  their  intel- 
lectual supremacy  if  they  had  married  into  the 
Jukes.  The  fact  is  that  in  150  years  the  Jukes 
never  did  mingle  first-class  blood  with  their  own, 
and  the  Edwards  family  has  not  in  150  years 
degenerated  thi'ough  marriage. 

It  is  pre-eminently  true  that  a  mighty  intellec- 
tual and  moral  force  does  plough  the  channel  of  its 
thought  and  character  through  many  generations. 
It  would  be  well  for  any  doubter  to  study  the 
records  of  thoroughbreds  in  the  animal  world. 
The  highest  record  ever  made  for  milk  and  butter 
was  by  an  animal  of  no  family,  and  she  was  valu- 
able only  for  what  she  could  earn.  None  of  her 
power  went  to  her  offspring.  She  was  simply  a 
high-toned  freak,  but  an  animal  with  a  clean  pedi- 

(53; 


54  Jl'KES— EDWARDS 

gree  back  to  Bome  great  progenitor  is  raluable  inde- 
pendently of  individual  earning  qualities. 

No  more  would  any  one  claim  that  the  Jukes 
would  not  have  been  immensely  improved  by  edu- 
cation and  environment,  or  that  the  Edwards 
family  could  have  maintained  its  record  without 
education,  training,  and  environment.  The  facts 
show  that  the  Jukes  first,  last,  and  all  the  time 
neglected  these  advantages,  and  that  the  Edwards 
family,  with  all  its  intermarrying,  has  never  neg- 
lected them. 

The  Jukes  were  notorious  law  breakers,  while 
the  Edwards  family  has  furnished  practically  no 
lawbreakers,  and  a  great  array  of  more  than  100 
lawyers,  thirty  judges,  and  the  most  eminent  law 
professor  probably  in  the  country.  James  Bryce  in 
his  comments  upon  America  places  one  of  this 
family  at  the  head  of  legal  learning  on  this  conti- 
nent. This  was  Theodore  William  Dwight,  LL.D., 
born  in  New  Haven,  July  18,  1822;  graduated  from 
Hamilton  College,  1840;  professor  there  1842-58. 
In  1858  he  went  to  Columbia  College,  organized 
the  law  school  and  was  its  president  for  thirty- 
thi*ee  years. 

Some  of  the  most  eminent  official  city  attorneys 
of  Philadelphia,  New  York  and  Chicago  have  been 
found  in  this  family.  Ex-Governor  Hoadley,  of 
Ohio,  a  descendant  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  is  now 
the  head  of  perhaps  the  leading  law  firm  of  New 
York  City  or  of  the  country.  When  one  studies 
the  legal    side    of    the    family  it  seems    as    though 


CONTRASTS  55 

tk«T  were  instinctively  and  chieflj  lawrers  and 
judges.  It  simply  means  that  whatever  the  Ed- 
wards family  has  done  it  has  done  ably  and  nobly. 
There  is  no  greater  test  of  intellectual  majesty  than 
that  which  the  practice  of  law  puts  upon  a  man. 
When  James  Bryce  pays  his  grand  tribute  to  Dr. 
Theodore  W.  Dwight,  president  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege law  school,  it  signifies  more  intellectually  than 
to  have  said  that  he  was  president  of  the  United 
States. 

None  of  the  Jukes  had  the  equivalent  of  a  com- 
mon school  education,  while  there  are  few  of  the 
Edwards  family  that  have  not  had  more  than  that. 
Few  were  satisfied  with  less  than  academy  or  semi- 
nary if  they  did  not  go  to  college.  There  is  not 
a  leading  college  in  the  country  in  which  their 
names  are  not  to  be  found  recorded.  They  have 
not  only  furnished  thirteen  college  presidents  and 
a  hundred  and  more  professors,  but  they  have 
founded  many  important  academies  and  seminaries 
in  New  Haven  and  Brooklyn,  all  through  the  New 
England  states,  and  in  the  Middle,  Western,  and 
Southern  states.  They  have  contributed  liberally 
to  college  endowments.  One  gave  a  quarter  of  a 
million  as  an  endowment  for  Yale. 

In  Yale  alone  have  been  more  than  120  gradu- 
ates. Among  these  are  nearly  twenty  D wights, 
nearly  as  many  Edwards,  seven  Woolseys,  eight 
Porters,  five  Johnsons,  four  Ingersolls,  and  several 
of  most  of  the  following  names:  Chapin,  Win- 
throp,  Shoemaker,  Hoadley,  Lewis,  Mathers,  Reeve, 


56  ,7  UKES—  ED  WA  HDS 

Rowland,  Carmalt,  Devereaitx,  Weston,  Heermance, 
Whitney,  Blake,  Collier,  Scarborough,  Yardley, 
vSilman,  Raymond,  Wood,  Morgan,  Bacon,  Ward, 
Foote,  Cornelius,  Shepards,  Bristed,  Wickerham, 
Doubleday,  Van  Volkenberg,  Robbins,  Tyler,  Mil- 
ler, Lyman,  Pierpont,  and  Churchill,  the  author  of 
"Richard  Carvel,"  is  a  recent  graduate.  In  Am- 
herst at  one  time  there  were  of  this  family  Presi- 
dent Gates  and  Professors  Mather,  Tyler,  and 
Todd.  Wherever  found  they  are  leaders  even  in 
college  faculties.  Those  who  know  what  Gates, 
Mather,  Tyler,  and  Todd  have  stood  for  as  presi- 
dent and  professors  of  Amherst  will  appreciate 
what  Jonathan  Edwards'  blood  has  done  for  this 
college. 

Of  the  Jukes,  440  were  more  or  less  viciously 
diseased.  The  Edwards  family  was  healthy  and 
long  lived.  Of  the  eleven  children  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Edwards,  four  lived  to  be  more  than  seventy 
years  of  age, — seventy-three,  seventy-five,  seventy- 
seven  and  seventy-nine, — and  three  others  were  fifty, 
fifty-six,  and  sixty-three.  Only  one  died  unmarried, 
none  died  in  childhood.  The  record  for  health  and 
longevity  continues  through  every  generation. 
They  have  also  done  much  to  alleviate  the  suiferings 
of  mankind.  There  have  been  sixty  j^hysicians,  all 
marked  men.  Dr.  Richard  Smith  Dewey  was  an 
eminent  surgeon  in  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  having 
charge  of  the  Prussian  hospital  at  Hesse  Cassel. 
Dr.  Sereno  Edwards  Dwight  was  a  physician  and 
surgeon   in  the  British   resiular  army.      The  physi- 


CONTRASTS  57 

cians  of  the  family  have  had  important  connection 
with  insane  asylums  and  hospitals.  The  legis- 
lative action  of  New  York,  by  which  the  first  insane 
asylum  of  the  state  was  built,  was  largely  the 
result  of  a  physician  of  this  family.  The  medical 
superintendent  of  the  Illinois  state  insane  asylum 
was  another  of  the  family.  Eminent  names  in  the 
medical  annals  of  San  Francisco,  Chicago,  Detroit, 
New  York,  Boston,  and  other  cities  can  be  traced 
to  Jonathan  Edwards. 

The  Jukes  neglected  all  religious  privileges, 
defied  and  antagonized  the  church  and  all  that  it 
stands  for,  while  the  Edwards  family  has  more 
than  a  100  clergymen,  missionaries,  and  theologi- 
cal professors,  many  of  the  most  eminent  in  the 
country's  history.  America  has  had  no  more 
brilliant  preachers  and  theologians  than  some  of 
those  that  bear  the  names  of  Edwards,  Dwight, 
Woolsey,  Park,  Ingersoll.  There  have  been  no 
more  noted  missionai'ies  than  this  family  has  sent 
for  faithful  and  successful  work  in  Asia  Minor, 
India,  Africa,  China,  Hawaii,  and  the  South  Sea 
islands.  Dwight's  famous  five  volumes  on  theology 
are  a  product  of  a  worthy  descendant  of  Jonathan 
Edwards.  Edwards  A.  Park,  the  longtime  head 
of  Andover  theological  seminary,  whose  vigor  of 
thought,  keenness  of  logic,  and  pulpit  power  are 
unsurpassed,  was  a  descendant  of  Mr.  Edwards. 
The  family  has  furnished  several  army  chaplains 
and  one  eminent  chaplain  of  the  United  States 
senate.     They  have  made  many  churches  prominent 


58  '/  UK  ES—  E  D  WA  RDS 

for  the  vigor  of  their  pulpit  ntteraiicee.  The 
famous  Second  chui-ch,  Portland,  Park  street 
church  of  Boston,  and  many  in  New  Haven  and 
other  Connecticut  cities  and  towns  as  well  as 
many  churches  in  the  Middle  and  "Western  States 
owe  much  to  the  descendants  of  Mr.  Edwards. 

Not  one  of  the  Jukes  was  ever  elected  to  a 
public  office,  while  more  than  eighty  of  the  family 
of  Jonathan  Edwards  have  been  especially  honored. 
Legislatures  in  all  sections  of  the  country,  gov- 
ernor's councils,  state  treasuries,  and  other  elective 
offices  have  been  filled  hy  these  men.  They  have 
been  mayors  of  New  Haven,  Cleveland,  and  Troy; 
governors  of  Connecticut,  Ohio,  and  South  Caro- 
lina; they  have  been  prominent  in  the  Continental 
congress,  in  the  constitutional  conventions  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, Connecticut,  New  York,  Ohio,  Illinois, 
and  Wisconsin.  They  have  represented  the  United 
States  at  several  foreign  courts;  several  have  been 
members  of  congress ;  three  have  been  United 
States  senators,  and  one  vice-president  of  the 
United  States. 

The  Jukes  lacked  the  physical  and  moral  cour- 
age, as  well  as  the  patriotic  purpose,  to  enlist,  but 
there  were  seventy-five  officers  in  the  army  and 
navy  from  the  family  of  Mr.  Edwards.  This  family 
has  been  prominent  as  officers,  chaplains,  or  sur- 
geons, in  the  army  and  navy  in  the  three  great 
wars.  In  the  Civil  war  they  were  at  Shiloh,  New 
Orleans,  and  with  the  Red  river  expedition,  at  Fort 
Fisher  and  Newbern,  at  Big  Bethel,  Antietam,  and 


CONTRASTS  59 

Gettysburg,  on  Lookout  mountain  with  Hooker, 
with  Sheridan  in  the  Shenandoah,  and  were  on  the 
march  to  the  sea  with   Sherman. 

One  spinster  of  the  family  residing  in  Detroit 
expressed  much  regret  that  she  had  no  husband. 
The  reason  she  gave,  however,  was  highly  compli- 
mentary to  the  sterner  sex, — because  she  had  no 
husband  to  send  to  the  Civil  war.  Having  none, 
she  paid  the  regulation  bounty  and  had  a  man  in 
the  service  of  her  coimtry  for  three  years  in  lieu  of 
the  husband  she  would  have  sent  if  she  had  had 
one. 

The  Jukes  were  as  far  removed  as  possible  from 
literature.  They  not  only  never  created  any,  but 
they  never  read  anything  that  could  by  any  stretch 
of  the  imagination  be  styled  good  reading.  In  the 
Edwards  family  some  sixty  have  attained  promi- 
nence in  authorship  or  editorial  life.  "Richard 
Carvel,"  is  by  Mr.  Winston  Churchill,  a  descendant 
of  Mr.  Edwards,  and  I  have  found  135  books  of 
merit  written  by  the  family.  Eighteen  consider- 
able journals  and  periodicals  have  been  edited  and 
several  important  ones  founded  by  the  Edwards 
family. 

The  Jukes  did  not  wander  far  from  the  haunts  of 
Max.  They  stagnated  like  the  motionless  pool, 
while  the  Edwards  family  is  a  prominent  factor  in 
the  mercantile,  industrial,  and  professional  life  of 
thirty-three  states  of  the  union  and  in  several  for- 
eign countries,  in  ninety-two  American  and  many 
foreign  cities.     They  have  been  pre-eminently  direc- 


60  ,/  UK  ES—  ED  WA  RDS 

tors  of  men.  The  Pacific  steamship  lin©  and  fifteen 
American  railway  systems  have  had  as  president, 
superintendent,  or  otherwise  active  in  the  manage- 
ment one  of  this  family.  Many  large  banks,  banking 
houses,  and  insm-ance  companies  have  been  directed 
by  them.  They  have  been  owners  or  superinten- 
dents of  large  coal  mines  in  Pennsylvania  and  "West 
Virginia,  of  large  iron  plants  and  vast  oil  interests 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  of  silver  mines  in  Nevada. 
There  is  scarcely  any  great  American  industry  that 
has  not  had  one  of  this  family  among  its  chief  jjro- 
moters.  Eli  Whitney  of  cotton-gin  fame  married  a 
granddaughter  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 

Prison  reform  has  found  its  leading  advocates  in 
this  family.  Wilberforce's  best  American  friend 
was  of  this  fold,  and  Garibaldi  valued  one  of  the 
family  above  all  other  American  supporters. 

Whatever  the  Jukes  stand  for,  the  Edwards 
family  does  not.  Whatever  weakness  the  Jukes 
represent  finds  its  antidote  in  the  Edwards  family, 
which  has  cost  the  country  nothing  in  pauperism, 
in  crime,  in  hospital  or  asylum  service.  On  the 
contrary,  it  represents  the  highest  usefulness  in 
invention,  manufacture,  commerce,  founding  of 
asylums  and  hospitals,  establishing  and  developing 
missions,  projecting  and  energizing  the  best  phil- 
anthropies. 


CHAPTER  IX 


TIMOTHY    EDWARDS 


To  make  more  clear,  if  possible,  the  persistence 
of  intellectual  activity  and  moral  virtue,  let  us  study 
samples  of  the  family,  Take  for  instance  the  eld- 
est son,  Timothy.  He  was  a  member  of  and  leader 
in  the  famous  Massachusetts  council  of  war  in  the 
Revolution,  a  colonel  in  the  militia,  and  a  judge. 
His  descendants  have  been  leaders  in  Binghamton, 
Pittsburg,  Indianapolis,  Bangor,  St.  Louis,  North- 
ampton, New  Bedford,  San  Francisco,  New  York 
New  Haven,  and  many  other  cities  and  towns  in 
New  England,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  West  Vir- 
ginia, and  Ohio.  From  his  descendants  a  Con- 
necticut town,  Chaplin,  is  named;  Newark,  Ohio, 
had  a  long-time  principal,  Jonathan  E.  Chaplin ; 
Andover  Theological  Seminary  had  one  of  its  most 
famous  treasurers,  Samuel  Farrar ;  the  American 
board  of  missions  had  one  of  its  grandest  leaders 
and  secretaries.  Dr.  Elias  Cornelius ;  the  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union  had  one  of  its  eminent 
secretaries.  Dr.  Solomon  Peck ;  the  American  Mis- 
sionary Association  had  as  its  great  treasurer,  W. 
E.  Whiting ;  the  famous  young  ladies'  seminary  of 
Lenox,  Mass.,  had  for  thirty  years  its  great  prin- 

l61; 


62  JUKES— EDWARDS 

cipal,  Elizabeth  Sedgwick ;  Boston  had  a  promi- 
nent lawyer,  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  "William  Minot ; 
St.  Louis  had  a  leading  lawyer,  William  D.  Sedg- 
wick ;  Antietam  had  in  the  list  of  killed  the  gallant 
Major  Sedgwick ;  San  Francisco  recorded  among 
her  distinguished  sons  the  long-time  superintendent 
of  the  Pacific  mail  steamship  company  ;  the  United 
States  navy  counted  as  one  of  her  able  officers  a  sur- 
geon. Dr.  George  Hopkins;  Amherst  had  as  her 
most  famous  instructor  Professor  W.  S.  Tyler,  D.  D., 
LL.  D.,  at  the  head  of  the  Greek  department  for 
half  a  century;  she  also  has  the  present  briDiant 
professor  of  biology,  John  M.  Tyler ;  Sheridan  had 
as  a  brilliant  colonel  in  the  grand  ride  of  the  Shen- 
andoah Colonel  M.  W.  Tyler;  invention  claims  the 
discoverer  of  the  Turbine  wheel,  "W.  W.  Tyler ; 
Knox  College  has  claimed  as  a  leader  at  one  time, 
as  has  Smith  at  another.  Professor  Henry  H.  Tyler. 
A  detailed  study  of  the  family  of  the  eldest  eon  is 
suggestive.  He  was  the  sixth  child,  bom  in  North- 
ampton, 1738,  when  the  father  was  thirty-five  and 
the  mother  twenty-eight.  He  was  but  twenty  years 
old  when  the  father  and  mother  died  and  the  care 
of  the  family  devolved  upon  him.  He  had  gradu- 
ated from  Princeton  the  previous  year  but  the 
responsibility  of  a  large  family  prevented  his  enter- 
ing upon  professional  life.  Two  years  after  the 
death  of  his  father  he  married  and  removed  to 
Elizabethtown,  N.  J.,  where  he  resided  for  ten  years. 
In  1770  he  retxTrned  to  Stockbridge,  Mass.  Berk- 
shire   countv   was    still     on    the    frontier    and    was 


TIMOTHY   EDWARDS  63 

sparsely  settled.  The  store  which  Mr,  Edwards 
opened  in  1770  was  the  first  in  the  county.  The 
settlers  raised  wheat  on  the  newly  cleared  land. 
This  Mr.  Edwards  bought  and  sent  to  New  York, 
bringing  back  goods  in  return.  In  five  years  he 
became  the  most  prosperous  man  in  the  county, 
buying  and  clearing  a  very  large  farm  on  which  he 
employed  as  many  as  fifty  men  in  the  busy  season. 
The  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle  was  a 
most  inopportune  time  for  Timothy  Edwards;  but 
for  that  he  would  have  become  one  of  the  wealthiest 
men  of  his  day.  All  business  was  suspended  and 
he  gave  himself  to  his  country's  cause  with  intense 
devotion.  He  was  at  once  appointed  on  a  commis- 
sion with  General  Schuyler  to  treat  with  the 
Indians ;  was  appointed  commissary  to  look  after 
the  supply  of  the  army  with  provisions.  From 
1777  to  1780  he  was  a  leader  in  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts ;  was  elected  to  the  Continental  Con- 
gress with  John  Hancock  and  John  Adams  ;  was  a 
colonel  in  the  Massachusetts  militia  and  a  judge  of 
probate.  When  the  war  broke  out  Timothy  Ed- 
wards was  worth  $20,000,  which  he  had  accumu- 
lated in  addition  to  all  his  other  burdens.  When 
the  war  closed  he  had  nothing,  and  was  $3,000  in 
debt  to  New  York  merchants.  To  understand  what 
sacrifices  he  made  it  must  be  understood  that  when 
the  government  was  in  great  straits  he  took  $5,000 
of  money  that  was  as  good  as  gold  and  let  the 
government  have  it,  taking  in  return  money  that 
was  of   slight  value.     He    also    took    fifty  tons    of 


64  JUKES—  ED  WARD8 

flour  to  Springfield  and  let  the  government  have 
it  for  paper  money  at  par.  There  were  no  greater 
heroes  in  the  Revolutionary  war  than  such  men  as 
Timothy  Edwards.  He  was  nearly  fifty  years  old 
when  the  war  closed  and  he  found  himself  the 
father  of  thirteen  children  and  without  property 
or  business.  Full  of  courage  and  enterprise  he 
succeeded  in  supporting  his  family  in  comfort  and 
in  regaining  a  substantial  property  before  his  death, 
which  occurred  in  the  midst  of  the  next  war,  Octo- 
ber 27,  1813. 

It  was  not  an  easy  thing  to  educate  children  in 
those  times.  When  the  Revolutionary  war  broke 
out  his  oldest  child  was  but  thirteen,  and  when  it 
ended  he  had  ten  childi-en  under  twenty-one. 
There  were  only  three  books  in  the  schools  at  Stock- 
bridge  during  the  war,  Dilworth's  Spelling  Book 
and  Arithmetic  and  the  Book  of  Psalms.  From 
these  the  children  of  Timothy  Edwards  received 
their  education  and  that  it  was  a  good  training 
subsequent  events  show. 

The  first  born,  a  daughter,  married  Benjamin 
Chaplin,  Jr.,  a  graduate  of  Yale  (1778),  and  for  her 
second  husband  Capt.  Dan  Tyler,  of  Brookline,  Ct., 
a  graduate  of  Harvard.  Her  second  child,  Edward, 
became  Register  of  Probate.  Jonathan,  the  second 
born,  had  several  children  who  became  prominent 
in  professional  and  business  life.  Phoebe  married 
Rev.  Asahel  Hooker,  an  eminent  graduate  of  Yale, 
and  for  her  second  husband  Rev.  Samuel  Farrer,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  and  for  many  years  treasurer 


TIMOTHY  EDWARDS  65 

and  financial  agent  of  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary. Her  children  were  noted  men  and  women, 
graduates  of  Yale  and  Dartmouth,  clergymen,  theo- 
logical professors,  secretary  of  the  American  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions,  and  secretary  American  Baptist 
Missionary  Union,  prominent  teachers  and  authors. 
Rhoda  Edwards,  another  of  Timothy's  daughters, 
married  Col.  Josiah  Dwight,  of  Springfield.  Among 
their  fifteen  children  and  their  descendants  are  the 
founder  of  a  famous  young  ladies'  school  at  Lenox ; 
an  author  of  "  Spanish  Conquest  of  America,"  and 
five  other  considerable  works;  clerk  of  supreme 
court  of  Massachusetts;  a  Boston  lawyer,  graduate 
of  Harvard;  an  eminent  linguist  and  graduate  of 
Harvard ;  music  teacher  in  New  York  City,  educated 
in  Germany ;  St.  Louis  lawyer,  graduate  of  Harvard 
college  and  law  school,  who  studied  in  Germany; 
major  in  Civil  war,  wounded  at  Antietam;  hospital 
nurse  in  Civil  war ;  graduate  of  Yale ;  graduate  of 
Cambridge,  Eng.,  and  author  of  "Five  Years  in  an 
English  University ; "  a  graduate  of  Amherst  and 
Andover,  and  missionary  in  Southern  India;  lawyer 
in  Springfield ;  eminent  teacher  at  Northampton ; 
leading  physician  at  Northampton ;  leading  physi- 
cian at  New  Bedford;  supt.  Pacific  Mail  Steamship 
Company;  merchant  in  New  York;  insurance  mana- 
ger. New  York;  author  of  "Greece  and  Roman 
Mythology,"  and  five  other  important  works;  supt. 
Cincinnati,  Hamilton  &  Dayton  R.  R.;  a  New  York 
lawyer  and  graduate  of  Yale ;  author  of  "  History  of 
Virginia,"   and    two    other   works;    graduate    Dart- 


66  J  UKE8—  ED  WA  RB^ 

mouth  and  Andover ;  assistant  surgeon  U.  S.  Navy ; 
and  an  officer  in  Civil  war,  who  fought  in  thirty 
battles. 

Mary  Edwards,  another  daughter  of  Timothy, 
married  Mason  Whiting,  District  Attorney  of  New 
York,  and  member  of  New  York  Legislature.  In 
this  family  of  eight  children  and  their  descendants 
are  an  authoress ;  a  colonel  in  Civil  war  ;  treasurer 
American  Missionary  Association ;  Rev.  "W,  S.  Tyler, 
D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  a  graduate  of  Amherst  and  Andover, 
professor  of  Greek  for  fifty  years  at  Amherst;  Col. 
Mason  Whiting  Tyler,  graduate  of  Amherst,  gallant 
soldier  in  Civil  war;  Wm.  W.  Tyler,  graduate  of 
Amherst,  manufacturer  of  famous  Turbine  Water 
Wheels ;  Henry  Mather  Tyler,  graduate  of  Am- 
herst, professor  of  Greek  at  Knox  College,  pastor 
at  Galesburg,  Fitchburg  and  Worcester,  and  pro- 
fessor of  Greek  at  Smith  College ;  John  Mason 
Tyler,  graduate  of  Amherst  and  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  studied  at  Gothenburg  and  Leipsic,  pro- 
fessor of  Biology  at  Amherst  and  eminent  lecturer. 

To  William  Edwards,  another  son  of  Timothy, 
oldest  son  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  an  entire  chapter 
will  be  given. 


CHAPTER  X 

COLON  KL    WILLIAM     KDWARDS 

Fascinating  is  the  story  of  Colonel  William  Ed- 
wards, grandson  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  inventor 
of  the  process  of  tanning  by  which  the  leather 
industry  of  the  world  was  revolutionized.  In  no 
respect  did  the  intellectual  and  moral  inheritance 
show  itself  more  clearly  than  in  the  recuperative 
force  of  the  family  of  Colonel  Edwards. 

Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  remark- 
able way  in  which  the  father,  Timothy  Edwards, 
re-established  himself  and  educated  his  large  family 
after  his  great  financial  reverses  in  the  period  of  the 
Revolutionary  war,  but  the  story  of  Colonel  Wil- 
liam Edwards  is  even  a  more  striking  illustration 
of  this  same  power.  He  was  born  at  Elizabeth, 
New  Jersey,  November  11,  1770.  He  was  a  mere 
child  during  the  Revolutionary  struggle.  Before 
he  was  two  years  old  the  father  removed  to  Stock- 
bridge,  Mass.,  and  the  boy  grew  up  in  as  thoroughly 
a  rural  community  as  could  be  found.  The  school 
privileges  were  very  meagre.  No  books  were 
printed  in  the  American  colonies  because  of  British 
prohibition.  From  early  childhood  he  had  to  work, 
first  as  his  mother's  assistant,  tending  the  children 

C«7; 


68  JUKES— EDWARDS 

and  doing  all  kinds  of  household  work  euch  as  a 
handy  boy  can  do.  As  soon  as  he  could  sit  on  a 
horse  he  rode  for  light  ploughing  and  by  the 
time  he  was  ten  was  driving  oxen  for  heavy  plough- 
ing and   teaming. 

William  Edwards  was  only  thirteen  when  he  was 
put  out  as  an  apprentice  to  a  tanner  in  Elizabeth- 
town,  N.  J.  To  reach  this  place  the  lad  had  to 
ride  horseback  to  the  Hudson  river,  about  thirty 
miles,  make  arrangements  to  have  the  horse  taken 
back,  and  take  passage  on  a  West  Indies  cattle  brig 
to  New  York.  It  took  him  a  week  to  get  to  New 
York.     He  then  took  the  ferry  for  Elizabethtown. 

When  young  Edwards  began  life  as  a  tanner  it 
took  twelve  months  for  the  tanning  of  hides.  This 
was  by  far  the  most  extensive  tannery  in  America. 
It  had  a  capacity  of  1,500  sides.  The  only  "improve- 
ment" then  known — 1784 — was  the  use  of  a  wooden 
plug  in  the  lime  vats  and  water  pools  to  let  off  the 
contents  into  the  brook.  The  bark  was  ground  by 
horse  power.  There  was  a  curb  fifteen  feet  in  diam- 
eter, made  of  three-inch  plank,  with  a  rim  fifteen 
inches  high.  Within  this  was  a  stone  wheel  with 
many  hollows  and  the  wooden  wheel  with  long  pegs. 
Two  horses  turned  these  wheels  which  would  grind 
half  a  cord  of  bark  in  a  day  of  twelve  hours.  The 
first  year  William  was  at  work  grinding  bark.  All 
the  pay  received  for  the  year's  work  was  the  knowl- 
edge gained  of  the  art  of  grinding  bark,  very  poor 
board  (no  clothing,  no  money),  and  the  privilege 
of    tanning    for     himself     three    sheep     skins.      The 


COLONEL    WILLIAM    FJD  WARDS  fiO 

fourth  half  year  he  received  his  first  money,  $2.50  a 
month,  which  was  paid  out  of  friendliness  for  the 
Edwards  family. 

Before  he  was  twenty  he  set  up  in  business  for 
himself.  He  had  saved  $100;  his  father,  still  poor, 
gave  him  $300;  he  bought  land  for  his  plant  for 
$700  on  long  credit.  After  years  of  great  struggle 
he  succeeded  in  business  and  developed  the  process 
by  which  instead  of  employing  one  hand  for  every 
one  hundred  sides  he  could  tan  40,000  with  twenty 
lads  and  the  cost  was  reduced  from  twelve  cents  a 
pound  to  four  cents.  The  quality  was  improved 
even  more  than  the  cost  was  reduced.  When  the 
war  of  1812  broke  out  he  had  practically  the  only 
important  tannery  in  the  United  States,  but  the  war 
scare  and  attendant  evils  led  to  his  failure  in  1815. 
He  was  now  45  years  old  with  a  wife  and  nine  chil- 
dren. He  went  to  work  in  a  factory  for  day  wages 
to  keep  his  family  supplied  with  the  necessities  of 
life.  By  some  misunderstanding  and  a  combination 
of  law  suits  his  patents  were  lost  to  him. 

When  Colonel  Edwards  failed  in  1815  he  owed 
considerable  sums  of  money  and  nine  years  later  the 
courts  released  him  from  all  obligations,  yet  between 
the  age  of  69  and  75  he  paid  every  cent  of  this  in- 
debtedness amounting  to  $25,924. 

The  chief  interest  in  Colonel  Edwards  centers  in 
his  children.  When  his  failure  came  there  were  nine 
children,  five  boys  and  four  girls.  The  youngest 
was  a  few  months  old  and  the  eldest  19.  Seven  of 
them  were  under  12  years  of  age.     In  the  first  four 


70  JUKES— EDWARDS 

years  of  their  reverses  two  others  were  born,  bo  that 
his  large  family  had  their  preparation  and  start  in 
life  in  the  years  of  struggle.  Nevertheless  they  took 
their  places  among  the  prosperous  members  of  the 
Edwards  family.  The  eldest  8on,  William  "W.  Ed- 
wards, was  one  of  the  eminently  successful  men  of 
New  York.  He  lived  to  be  80  years  old  and  his  life 
was  fully  occupied  with  good  work.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  the  straw  goods  business  in  New  York; 
helped  to  develop  the  insurance  business  to  large 
proj)ortions ;  organized  the  Dime  Savings  Bank  of 
Brooklyn,  of  which  he  was  treasurer  and  cashier. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  American  Tract 
Society  and  of  the  New  York  Mercantile  Library. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  State  legislature  for  sev- 
eral terms. 

Henry  Edwards  was  one  of  Boston's  most  eminent 
merchants  and  a  most  useful  man.  He  had  the  only 
strictly  wholesale  silk  house  in  Boston  for  nearly  half 
a  century.  He  was  born  in  Northampton,  1798.  At 
the  age  of  fifteen  he  entered  the  employ  of  a  promi- 
nent Boston  importing  house  and  began  by  opening 
the  store,  building  the  fires,  and  carrying  out  goods. 
By  the  time  he  was  twenty  he  was  the  most  trusted 
employee.  He  was  a  born  ti-ader.  His  brother  in 
New  York  knowing  that  twist  buttons  w^ere  scai'ce  in 
that  city  suggested  that  Henry  buy  up  all  there  were 
in  Boston  before  the  dealers  discovered  the  fact  that 
they  were  scarce  in  New  York  and  send  them  on  to 
him.  They  cleared  $500  in  a  few  weeks.  He  was 
an  earnest  student.     Not  having  had  the  advantages 


COLONEL    WILLIAM   EDWARDS  71 

of  an  education  he  made  up  for  it  by  studying  even- 
ings. They  imported  their  silks  from  France  which 
led  him  to  study  French  until  he  was  accomplished 
in  the  art  of  reading  and  speaking  the  French  lan- 
guage. It  is  rather  remarkable  that  learning  the 
language  in  this  way,  he  was  able  to  go  to  France 
and  out-rank  most  foreigners  in  Parisian  society. 
An  Edwards  did  not  absolutely  need  the  college  and 
the  university  in  order  to  be  eminently  scholarly  in 
any  special  line. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  went  into  business 
as  the  senior  partner  of  the  house  of  Edwards  & 
Stoddard  on  State  street,  Boston.  It  was  the  only 
house  that  made  its  whole  business  the  importing  of 
silks.  At  the  age  of  twenty-eight  he  went  to  Paris 
to  pui-chase  silks  and  remained  there  many  years. 
They  did  a  highly  profitable  business  for  nearly  fifty 
years.  He  received  much  social  attention  while  in 
Paris.  General  Lafayette  was  speciaUy  friendly, 
and  the  families  visited  frequently.  He  was  also 
highly  honored  in  Boston,  where  he  was  a  member 
of  the  city  government — it  was  an  honor  in  those 
days — for  nine  years,  one  of  the  trustees  of  Amherst 
College  for  forty  years,  a  member  of  the  Massachu- 
setts legislature  and  received  several  important  ap- 
pointments of  trust  and  honor  from  Governor  John 
A.  Andrew  and  President  Lincoln.  Boston  had  few 
men  in  his  day  who  were  more  prosperous  or  more 
highly  honored. 

Ogden  E.  Edwards  was  for  several  years  at  the 
head  of  one  of  the  largest  leather  houses  of  New 


72  JUKES-EDWARDS 

York  City,  eminently  prosperous  and  of  great  service 
to  the  public.  Alfred  Edwards  was  founder  and 
senior  partner  in  one  of  the  largest  wholesale  dry 
goods  houses  of  New  York  for  fifty  years,  known  as 
Alfred  Edwards  &  Co.  Amory  was  for  many  years  a 
member  of  the  firm  of  Alfred  Edwards  &  Co.  He 
was  also  United  States  Consul  at  Buenos  Ayres, 
and  traveled  extensively  in  South  America.  His 
nephew,  "Wm.  H.  Edwards,  wrote  of  these  travels. 
This  nephew,  resident  at  Coalbough,  West  Virginia, 
is  the  author  of  a  famous  work  on  "  The  Butterflies 
of  North  America,"  and  also  of  an  important  work 
on  "Shaksper  nor  Shakespeare."  Eichard  C.  Ed- 
wards was  also  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Alfred  Ed- 
wards &  Co.  and  shared  the  prosperity  of  the  house 
with  his  brother. 

Rebecca  T.  Edwards,  the  eldest  daughter,  married 
Benjamin  Curtis,  a  wealthy  merchant  in  business  in 
New  York  and  Paris.  She  was  married  in  Paris  and 
General  Lafayette  gave  her  away  in  place  of  her 
father.  Sarah  H.  Edwards  married  Rev.  John  N. 
Lewis,  a  successful  clergyman.  Elizabeth  T.  Ed- 
wards married  Henry  Rowland,  an  eminently  suc- 
cessful and  useful  citizen  of  New  York,  whose  chil- 
dren, like  himself,  have  been  honored  in  many  ways. 

Ann  Maria  Edwards  married  Professor  Edwards 
A.  Park,  D.  D.,  the  president  of  Andover  Theological 
Seminary  and  the  most  eminent  theologian  of  the 
day.  Their  son,  Rev.  William  Edwards  Park,  of 
Gloversville,  New  York,  is  a  preacher  of  rare  ability. 


GO  LONE  L    WILLI  A  M  ED  WA  RDS  78 

Rev.  W.  E.  Park  has  two  sons,  graduates  of  Yale, 
young  men  of  great  promise. 

The  ten  children  of  Colonel  Edwaxda  lived  to  great 
age,  and  each  of  the  sons  was  eminently  successful 
in  business,  and  all  were  highly  esteemed.  Each  of 
the  daughters  married  men  eminent  in  commercial 
or  professional  life.  None  of  them  were  privileged 
to  receive  a  liberal  education  because  of  the  great 
financial  reverses  that  came  to  the  father  in  their 
youth,  but  every  one  of  them  was  closely  identified 
with  educational  institutions  and  all  were  rated  as 
scholarly  men  and  women. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    MARY    EDWARDS    DWIGHT    FAMILY 

After  studying  at  some  length  the  family  of  the 
eldest  son  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  it  is  worth  while  to 
study  the  family  of  one  of  the  daughters.  Mary, 
the  fourth  child  born  at  Northampton  (1734),  was 
married  at  the  age  of  16  to  Timothy  Dwight,  bom 
in  Vermont  (1726)  and  graduated  from  Yale  in  1744. 

It  is  interesting  to  find  a  daughter  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  marrying  a  Tale  graduate,  who  "had  such 
extreme  sensibility  to  the  beauty  and  sweetness  of 
always  doing  right,  and  such  a  love  of  peace,  and 
regarded  the  legal  profession  as  so  full  of  tempta- 
tions to  do  wrong,  in  great  degree  and  small "  that 
he  persistently  refused  to  study  law,  though  it  had 
been  his  father's  great  desire.  The  conscientious- 
ness of  Major  Dwight  is  well  illustrated  by  this  in- 
cident. There  was  a  lottery  in  the  interest  of  Prince- 
ton college,  authorized  by  the  legislature  of  New 
Jersey,  and  Dwight  was  sent  twenty  tickets  for  sale. 
He  returned  them,  but  the  time  required  for  the 
maU  in  those  days  was  so  long  that  they  did  not 
reach  the  destination  until  after  the  drawing.  Major 
Dwight  was  notified  that  one  of  his  twenty  tickets 
had  drawn  $20,000  and  all  but  one  ticket  had  drawn 

^74) 


MARY  RDWARDS  DWIGHT  FAMILY         75 

some  prize.  Major  Dwight  paid  for  the  one  blank 
ticket  and  would  not  take  a  cent  of  the  large  prize 
money.  This  was  worthy  a  son-in-law  of  Mr. 
Edwards,  the  progenitor  of  a  family  of  mighty  men. 

Major  Dwight  was  a  merchant  in  Northampton,  a 
selectman,  judge  of  probate  for  sixteen  years  and 
was  for  several  years  a  member  of  the  legislature. 
At  the  time  of  his  death,  1778,  he  was  possessed  of 
3,000  acres  of  valuable  land  in  Northampton,  and  he 
willed  his  wife  $7,050,  and  each  of  his  thirteen  chil- 
dren $1,165.  At  that  time  there  were  but  five 
painted  houses  in  Northampton  and  but  two  were 
carpeted.  Of  the  fourteen  children,  thirteen  grew 
up,  and  twelve  were  married ;  and  their  entire  family 
adds  greatly  to  the  glory  of  the  family  of  Jonathan 
Edwards.  The  oldest  son.  Dr.  Timothy  Dwight, 
president  of  Yale,  said  with  much  tenderness  and 
force,  "  All  that  I  am  and  all  that  I  shall  be,  I  owe 
to  my  mother."  She  was  a  woman  of  remarkable 
will  power  and  intellectual  vigor.  She  was  but 
seventeen  when  her  first  child  was  born  and  was  the 
mother  of  fourteen  childi-en  at  forty-two. 

The  first-born.  President  Timothy  Dwight,  S.T. 
D.,  LL.D.,  born  1752,  was  one  of  the  most  eminent 
of  Americans.  He  learned  his  alphabet  at  a  single 
sitting  while  a  mere  child,  and  at  four  knew  the  cate- 
chism by  heart.  He  graduated  from  Yale  at  seven- 
teen ;  taught  the  Hopkins  school  in  New  Haven  at 
seventeen  and  eighteen ;  was  tutor  in  Yale  from  nine- 
teen to  twenty-five  yeai's  of  age;  wrote  the  "Con- 
quest of  Canada,"  which  was  reprinted  in  London,  at 


76  ./  UK  ES—ED  WA  RDS 

nineteen.  This  work  was  dedicated  to  George  Wash- 
ington by  permission.  At  twenty-three,  he  was  in 
the  fore  front  of  the  advocates  of  independence.  At 
twenty-two.  General  "Washington  appointed  him  a 
chaplain  in  the  army,  and  personally  requested  that 
he  accept.  His  widow  received  $350  a  year  pension 
because  of  this  service.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Massachusetts  legislature  and  secured  an  important 
grant  to  Harvard  university.  He  was  offered  a  pro- 
fessorship at  Harvard  and  could  have  gone  to  Con- 
gress without  opposition,  but  he  declined  both,  and 
at  thirty-two  accepted  a  country  pastorate  at  Green- 
field Hill,  Connecticut.  He  remained  there  twenty- 
two  years.  His  salary  was  $750.  He  also  had  a  gift 
of  $1,500  for  accepting  the  call,  a  parish  lot  of  six 
acres,  and  twenty  cords  of  wood  annually.  This  was 
said  to  be  the  largest  ministerial  salary  in  New  Eng- 
land. At  forty-three  he  was  called  from  the  country 
parish  to  the  presidency  of  Tale.  His  salary  as 
president  was  $334.  Later  he  had  $500,  from  which 
he  paid  $150  for  two  amanuenses  which  he  required 
because  his  sight  had  failed  him.  He  published  four- 
teen important  works.  He  was  largely  instrumental 
in  organizing  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
of  Foreign  Missions ;  the  American  Missionary  Society 
and  the  American  Bible  Society.  To  him  is  largely 
due  the  establishment  of  theological  seminaries  in 
the  country.  For  forty-six  years  he  taught  every 
year  either  in  a  public  or  private  school  or  college, 
and  all  but  one  year  of  that  time  he  preached  every 
week  and  almost  invariably  he  prepared  a  new  sermon. 


yfARY  EDWARDS  D  WIGHT  FAMILY         77 

When  he  died,  from  a  cancer  at  sixty-five,  the  chil- 
dren insisted  that  the  estate  should  be  for  the  mother 
during  her  lifetime,  and  when  she  died  there  was 
found  to  be  $26,000  although  his  salary  had  always 
been  ridiculously  small. 

The  eight  children  wei'e  all  boys,  and  all  but  one 
grew  to  manhood.  Timothy  was  a  hardware  mer- 
chant in  New  Haven  and  New  York  for  more  than 
forty  years.  He  endowed  the  "Dwight  Professor- 
ship of  Didactic  Theology  in  Tale,"  which  was  named 
for  him.  There  were  nine  children,  grandchildren 
of  President  Dwight  by  his  eldest  son.  Of  these  the 
eldest,  also  Timothy,  was  the  leading  paper  manufact- 
urer in  the  trust  mill  headquarters  at  Chicago,  and 
his  six  children  were  enterprising  and  successful 
business  men  in  Illinois  and  Wisconsin.  John  Wil- 
liam Dwight  was  one  of  the  leading  manufacturers 
of  chemicals  in  Connecticut.  Edward  Strong 
Dwight,  of  Tale,  1838,  and  of  Theological  Seminary, 
Tale,  was  for  many  years  a  trustee  of  Amherst  and 
a  prominent  clergyman.  J.  H.  Lyman,  M.  D.,  and 
Edward  Huntington  Lyman,  M.  D.,  were  names  that 
added  luster  to  the  family  of  President  Dwight. 
Benjamin  Woolsey  Dwight,  M.  D.,  another  son  of 
the  President  of  Tale,  was  a  graduate  of  Tale  and 
treasurer  of  Hamilton  college  for  nineteen  years. 
Among  his  descendants  are  Richard  Smith  Dewey, 
M.  D.,  of  Ann  Arbor,  in  charge  of  Brooklyn  City 
Hospital ;  charge  of  military  hospital  at  Hesse  Cas- 
selin  Franco-Prussian  war;  assistant  superintendent 
Illinois  State  Insane  hospital  at  Elgin.     Also  Elliott 


78  JUKES—  ED  WA  RDS 

Anthony,  of  Hamilton,  1850;  Chicago  lawyer;  city 
attorney;  a  member  of  the  Illinois  Constitutional 
Convention  in  1862  and  again  in  1870;  founder  of 
the  Law  Institute,  Chicago,  and  for  several  years 
the  president.  Also  Edward  "Woolsey  Dwight,  who 
was  a  leading  citizen  and  legislator  of  Wisconsin. 

It  is  impracticable  to  give  the  record  of  many  of 
the  distinguished  members  of  such  a  family,  but  a 
brief  notice  of  a  few  will  give  some  idea  of  the 
standard  of  the  family. 

Benj.  Woodbridge  Dwight,  Ph.D.,  b.  1816,  g. 
Hamilton  1835,  Yale  Theological  Seminary,  professor 
in  Hamilton ;  founded  Central  Presbyterian  church, 
Joliet,  111.;  established  "Dwight's  High  School," 
Brooklyn;  editor-in-chief  of  "The  Interior"  of  Chi- 
cago, which  he  owned  and  edited;  contributor  to 
many  magazines;  author  of  several  scholarly  works; 
had  the  first  preparatory  school  which  placed  Ger- 
man on  a  level  with  Greek  in  importance,  and 
founded  a  large  preparatory  boarding  school  at 
Clinton,  N.  Y.  He  was  a  man  of  rare  ability,  char- 
acter and  success. 

Prof.  Theodore  William  Dwight,  LL.D.,  b.  1822, 
g.  Hamilton  1840,  g.  Yale  Law  S. ;  professor  Hamil- 
ton College  sixteen  years;  dean  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege Law  S.  from  1858  to  1892.  James  Brice  of 
England  placed  him  at  the  head  of  legal  learning 
in  the  United  States  and  said:  "It  would  be  worth 
an  English  student's  while  to  cross  the  Atlantic  to 
attend  his  course."  Another  eminent  English  law- 
yer, A.  V.   Dicey,  in  "Legal    Education"  wrote   of 


^fAR  Y  ED  WARDS  D  WIGHT  FAMIL  V         79 

him  as  "the  greatest  living  American  teacher  of 
law."  He  gave  a  course  of  lectures  each  year  at 
Cornell;  was  a  member  of  the  N.  Y.  Constitutional 
Convention  in  1867;  was  a  member  of  the  famous 
committee  of  seventy  in  N.  Y.  City  that  exposed  the 
Tweed  ring ;  was  president  of  the  New  York  Prison 
Association  and  presided  when  Mr.  Dixgdale  was 
employed  to  study  the  Jukes ;  associate  editor 
"American  Law  Register;"  was  legal  editor  of 
"Johnson's  Encyclopaedia,"  and  made  many  impor- 
tant contributions  to  the  legal  literature  of  the 
country.  There  have  been  few  men  of  equal  emi- 
nence in   our  country's  history. 

President  Theodore  Dwight  Woolsey,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
b.  New  York  City,  October  31,  1801,  was  the  grand- 
son of  Mary  Edwards  Dwight  and  great  grandson 
of  Jonathan  Edwards;  g.  Yale  1820;  studied  at 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  and  g.  at  Yale  L. 
S. ;  studied  in  German  universities ;  professor  in  Yale 
twenty-two  years;  president  of  Yale  1846-1871. 
Wesleyan  conferred  degree  of  LL.D.  and  Harvard 
that  of  LL.D.  and  S.T.D.  all  before  he  was  fifty 
years  of  age.  President  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance 
held  in  N.  Y.  City  1873,  the  leading  American  on 
the  Committee  for  the  Revision  of  the  Bible.  After 
resigning  the  presidency  he  continued  to  lecture  at 
Yale  until  his  death,  1889.  There  was  no  more 
eminent  American  in  unofficial  life  from  1840  to 
1890  than  he.  President  Hayes  once  said  that  he 
was  greatly  perplexed  at  one  time  as  to  the  line  of 
public    policy    which     he     should    pursue     until    it 


80  JUKES-EDWARDS 

occured  to  him  that  President  Woolsey  was  the 
one  American  on  whose  judgment  he  could  rely,  and 
after  consulting  him  his  course  was  entirely  clear 
and  his  action  wise.  He  was  the  author  of  several 
valuable  and  standard  works.  Yale's  first  great 
advance  was  in  the  time  of  President  Timothy 
Dwight,  its  second  was  in  the  administration  of 
President  Theodore  Dwight  Woolsey.  When  he 
became  president  the  classes  about  doubled  in  size. 
He  introduced  new  departments  at  once  and  en- 
dowments came  in,  such  as  had  never  been  con- 
sidered possible.  The  tuition  was  raised  from  $33 
to  $90 ;  the  salaries  were  greatly  increased,  gradu- 
ate courses  were  introduced;  many  new  build- 
ings were  erected  and  everything  went  forward 
at  a  radically  different  pace.  Yale  and  American 
thought  owe  much  to  President  Woolsey.  He 
wrote  many  scholarly  works. 

There  were  thirteen  children  born  to  President 
Woolsey.  Of  these,  one  daughter  married  Rev. 
Edgar  Laing  Heermance,  a  graduate  of  Yale  and  a 
useful  and  talented  man;  one  of  the  sons,  Theo- 
dore Salisbury,  was  a  graduate  of  Yale,  and  pro- 
fessor of  International  Law  at  Yale. 

President  Timothy  Dwight,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  b.  1828, 
g.  Yale  1849,  g.  Yale  Theological  School,  studied  at 
Bonn  and  Berlin  in  Germany ;  was  professor  at  Yale 
and  president  from  1886  to  1897.  He  has  been  an 
eminent  American  scholar  for  half  a  century.  If 
there  were  but  two  or  three  such  men  in  a  family 
it  would  make  it  memorable.     Yale  gave  him  the 


MARY  EDWARDS  D  WIGHT  FAMILY         81 

degree  of  D.D.,  and  both  Harvard  and  Princeton 
that  of  LL.D.  He  was  editor  of  "The  New  Eng- 
lander."  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  three  great 
advances  which  Yale  has  made  have  been  in  the 
times  of  the  two  D wights  and  of  Woolsey,  all 
descendants  of  Jonathan  Edwards.  By  the  end  of 
his  third  year  the  number  of  students  had  risen  to 
1365  and  the  sixth  year  to  1784.  The  gifts  to 
Yale  in  each  of  the  fifteen  years  of  his  administra- 
tion were  fabulous  as  compared  with  any  past 
experiences,  often  above  $350,000. 

President  Sereno  Edwards  Dwight,  D.D.,  g.  Yale 
1803,  practiced  law  in  New  Haven;  author  of 
important  books  which  were  republished  in  Eng- 
land; became  a  clergyman  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
nine  ;  pastor  of  Park  St.  Church,  Boston ;  was  chap- 
lain of  the  tJ.  S.  Senate;  established  successful 
boarding  school  in  New  Haven.  Among  his  stu- 
dents were  the  two  boys  who  afterwards  made  the 
famous  Andrews  &  Stoddard's  Latin  Grammar. 
His  literary  work  was  extensive  and  valuable. 
Standing  by  himself  he  would  shed  lustre  upon  the 
names  he  bore,  Edwards  and  Dwight.  He  was  a 
tutor  in  Yale  and  was  third  president  of  Hamilton 
College. 

William  Theodore  Dwight,  D.D.,  b.  1795,  g.  Yale 
1813,  tutor  at  Yale,  practiced  law  in  Philadelphia; 
became  a  clergyman;  pastor  in  Portland;  overseer 
of  Bowdoin  College.  He  was  offered  three  profes- 
sorships, which  he  declined.  He  was  one  of  the 
religious  leaders  of  America  for  many  years. 


82  JUKES— ED  WARDS 

Hon.  Theodore  Dwight,  b.  1764,  lawyer.  Editor 
"The  Connecticut  Mirror"  and  "The  Hartford 
Courant;"  member  of  CongreBb,  where  he  won 
honors  by  successfully  combating  the  famous  John 
Randolph ;  secretary  of  the  famous  Hartford  Conven- 
tion; established  and  edited  1815-17  the  "Albany 
Daily  Advertiser;"  established  and  edited  the  "New 
York  Daily  Advertiser"  1817-36;  wrote  "Life  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,"  and  many  other  works  of  im- 
portance. There  were  few  men  in  his  day  who  oc- 
cupied a  position  of  such  influence. 

Theodore  Dwight,  2d,  b.  1796,  g.  Yale  1814,  emi- 
nent scholar,  imprisoned  in  Paris  for  distributing 
the  New  Testament  gratis  in  the  streets;  spoke 
seven  languages;  was  the  warmest  American  friend 
of  Garibaldi  and  was  authorized  by  him  to  edit  his 
works  in  this  country;  was  director  N.  Y.  Asylum 
for  the  Blind,  and  of  the  N.  Y.  Public  School 
Assn. ;  was  instrumental  in  having  music  introduced 
into  the  schools  of  N.  Y.  City;  was  prominent  in 
religious  and  philanthropic  as  well  as  educational 
work.  In  the  Kansas  crisis  he  induced  3,000  set- 
tlers to  go  to  Kansas,  and  indirectly  caused  nearly 
10,000  to  go  at  that  critical  time.  He  edited  at 
various  times  "The  N.  Y.  Daily  Advertiser,"  "The 
Youths  Penny  Paper,"  "The  American  Magazine," 
"The  Family  Visitor,"  "The  N.  Y.  Presbyterian," 
"The  Christian  Alliance,"  and  wrote  several  suc- 
cessful text-books  and  many  literary  and  historical 
works.  He  was  a  leader  in  the  noblest  sense  of 
the  term. 


MARY  EDWARDS  DWfGHT  FAMTLV         83 

Nathaniel  Dwight,  M.D.,  b.  1770,  surgeon  in 
United  States  Army,  practiced  medicine  in  Provi- 
dence ;  prepared  the  first  school  geography  ever  pub- 
lished in  the  United  States ;  wrote  many  historical 
works;  original  advocate  of  special  institutional  care 
for  the  insane.  After  eleven  years  of  ardent  cham- 
pionship he  saw  the  first  insane  retreat  established. 

Henry  E.  Dwight,  M.D.,  b.  1832,  g.  Yale  1852, 
g.  Andover  Theological  Seminary  1857,  studied  in 
Germany  and  France  and  was  an  eminent  physician 
in  Philadelphia.  Rev.  S.  G.  Dwight,  g.  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  and  was  a  missionary  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands. 

Here  are  a  few  who  can  only  be  named :  John  W. 
Dwight,  b.  1820,  g.  Yale,  eminent  divine  and  trustee 
of  Amherst  CoUege  for  many  years. 

Mrs.  Rensselaer  Nicol,  of  New  Haven,  a  leader  in 
])rison  reform  and  other  philanthropic  movements. 

Thomas  B.  Dwight,  b.  1857,  g.  Yale,  district 
attorney  of  Philadelphia  and  eminent  lawyer. 

Sereno  E.  Dwight,  surgeon  in  British  army. 

James  A.  Dwight,  b.  1855,  in  United  States  navy. 

Samuel  H.  Sumner  was  with  Sherman  in  his 
march  to  the  sea. 

Mrs.  R.  H.  Perkins,  b.  1819,  eminent  teacher, 
pi-incipal  Duffield  school,  Detroit. 

William  H.  Sumner,  officer  in  U.  S.  regular  army. 

Thomas  Berry,  banker  in  Cleveland. 

General  Robert  Montgomery,  of  Pennsylvania. 

O.  H.  Kennedy,  officer  in  U.  S.  navy. 

Fenton    Rockwell,    judge     advocate    and    provost 


84  JUKES— ED  WA  RDS 

judge  in  New  Orleans;  officer  in  Civil  war,  and  in 
many  important  battles. 

William  R.   Dwight,  New  York  banker. 

George  S.  Dwight,  large  railroad  contractor. 

William  Allerton,  leather  merchant  in  Boston. 

Mrs.  Egbert  C.  Smyth,  wife  of  the  dean  of  Ando- 
ver  Theological  Seminary. 

Rossiter  W.  Raymond,  eminent  specialist,  author, 
and  lecturer. 

W.  M.  Bell,  manufacturer,  Allegheny. 

Colonel  A.  S.  M.  Morgan,  U.  S.  A. ' 

J.  E.  Jacobs,  insurance  manager,  Chicago. 

E.  S.  Churchill,  Portland,  Me.,  merchant. 

W.  D.  Bell,  manufacturer,  Philadelphia. 

George  Collier,  rich  St.  Louis  banker. 

E.  A.  Hitchcock,  tea  merchant.  Hong  Kong. 

M.  D.  Collier,  graduated  from  Yale ;  St.  Louis 
lawyer. 

H.  R.  Bell,  Chicago  physician. 

D.  W.  Bell,  Pittsburg  lawyer. 

A.  S.  Bell,  Pittsburg  lawyer. 

George  Hoadley,  born  in  1781 ;  graduated  from 
Yale;  mayor  New  Haven;  eight  times  mayor  of 
Cleveland. 

W.  W.  Hoadley,  born  in  1814 ;  Cincinnati  banker. 

Dr.  T.  F.  Pomeroy,  Detroit. 

General  J.  H.  Bates,  U.  S.  A.;  Ohio  state  senate. 

Governor  George  Hoadley,  bom  in  1826;  gradu- 
ated from  Western  Reserve  College ;  supreme  court 
judge ;  president  Democratic  convention  that  nomi- 
nated General  Hancock  for  the  presidency. 


MARY  EDWARDS  DWIOHT  FAMILY         85 

Major  W.  W.  Winthrop  of  the  Civil  war;  gradu- 
ated from  Yale. 

Major  W.  T.  Johnson,  graduated  from  Yale; 
killed  at  battle  of  Big  Bethel. 

Theodore  Weston,  graduated  from  Yale;  civil 
engineer  of  Croton  water  works. 

J,  M.  Woolsey,  born  in  1796;  graduated  from 
Yale;  capitalist,  Cleveland. 

Sarah  C.  Woolsey  is  "Susan  Coolidge." 

Mrs,  Daniel  C.  Gilman,  wife  of  the  president  of 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  and  formerly  president 
of  University  of  California. 

Samuel  Carmalt,  wealthy  land  owner  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Dr.  W.  W.  Woolsey,  born  in  1831 ;  graduated  from 
Yale;  physician,  Dubuque,  la. 

T.  B.  Woolsey,  flour  merchant.  New  York. 

Samuel  W.  Johnson,  graduated  from  Princeton 
and  Harvard  law  school;  New  York  lawyer. 

Woolsey  Johnson,  M.D.,  graduated  from  Prince- 
ton and  New  York  Medical  College ;  physician,  New 
York. 

Theodore  S.  Woolsey,  graduated  from  Yale ;  pro- 
fessor in  Yale. 

Charles  F.  Johnson,  graduated  from  Yale;  profes- 
sor United  States  Naval  Academy,  Annapolis. 

W.  W.  Johnson,  graduated  from  Yale;  professor 
Kenyon  College. 

J.  H.  Rathbum,  lawyer,  Utica. 

J.  O.  Pease,  merchant,  Philadelphia. 


86  JUKES-  ED  WA  RDS 

A.  S.  Dwight,  lieutenant  U.  S.  A.;  killed  at  Peters- 
burg. 

George  P.  B.  Dwight,  New  York  custom  house. 

Henry  E.  Dwight,  born  in  1813;  Southern  planter. 

Theodore  Woolsey  Porter,  b.  1799,  g.  Yale  1819, 
eminent  teacher;  pi-incipal  of  Washington  Institute, 
New  York  City. 

Timothy  Dwight  Porter,  M.D.,  b.  1797,  g.  Yale 
1816,  was  in  the  New  York  senate  and  a  successful 
practitioner. 

Imperfectly  as  these  names  represent  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  descendants  of  Mary  Edwards  Dwight 
they  do  hint  strongly  at  the  vigor,  character  and 
scholarship  for  which  the  family  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards stands  in  American  life. 

There  is  another  large  family  of  Dwights,  direct 
descendants  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  through  his 
granddaughter,  Rhoda  Edwards,  but  these  are  not, 
of  course,  included  in  this  list  of  Mary's  descendants. 
Many  of  these  are  eminent  men,  and  reference  is 
here  made  to  their  omission,  lest  some  one  should 
think  the  facts  regarding  them  were  not  gathered. 

A    MODERN    INSTANCE 

It  was  known  that  John  Eliot  Woodbridge  re- 
moved to  Youngstown,  O.,  about  one  hundred  years 
ago,  but  no  trace  of  him  was  found  until  these 
chapters  were  in  type  when  it  appeared  that  this 
undiscovered  remainder  was  a  most  important 
branch  of  the  family. 


A   MODERN  INSTANCE  87 

Congressman  R.  W.  Taylor,  of  Ohio,  chairman  of 
the  committee  to  pasa  upon  the  case  of  Mr.  Roberts 
of  Utah,  is  a  descendant  of  Jonathan  Edwards 
through  John  Eliot  Woodbridge.  His  masterly 
treatment  of  the  case  is  recognized  throughout  the 
country.  Here  is  what  the  "Detroit  I'ree  Press" 
said  of  him  at  the  time  of  the  investigation : 

"In  appearance  he  is  not  of  the  robust  order  of 
statesmen.  With  fair  face,  shoulders  that  he  has 
always  permitted  to  droop,  indispensable  eyeglasses, 
and  hands  that  nine  women  out  of  ten  would  envy, 
modest  demeanor,  and  kindly  instincts,  he  is  among 
the  last  of  men  that  a  casual  observer  would  pick  as 
fitting  leaders  where  nerve,  aggressiveness,  and  fear- 
less determination  must  be  joined  wdth  an  ability 
to  give  and  take  in  legal  controversy. 

"But  this  passing  judgment  would  be  at  widest 
variance  with  the  truth.  College  mates  of  Taylor 
will  recall  the  deceptiveness  of  this  outward  appear- 
ance. It  concealed  muscles  of  steel  and  a  will  that 
had  onl}'  to  be  right  in  order  to  be  invincible.  He 
was  the  i)eer  of  any  amateur  baseball  catcher  in  his 
daj'',  and  held  the  same  enviable  place  as  a  student 
of  the  classics.  He  was  the  strong  man  for  the 
D.  K.  E.  initiations,  and  took  the  same  rank  in  all 
scholastic  competitions." 

Dr.  Timothy  Woodbridge,  of  Youngstown,  was  a 
graduate  of  the  medical  college  of  Philadelphia, 
and  was  one  of  the  eminent  physicians  of  Eastern 
Ohio.  His  grandson,  Benjamin  Warner  Wells,  of 
Chicago,  was  a   graduate  of  Annapolis  naval   aead- 


88  J  UKES—  ED  WA  RDS 

emy.  He  was  Admiral  Schley's  flag  secretary  in 
the  engagement  at  Santiago.  Dr.  John  Eliot  Wood- 
bridge,  Cleveland,  is  an  eminent  specialist  in 
typhoid  fever  cases.  Robert  Walker  Taylor  was 
comptroller  of  the  United  States  treasury  for  fifteen 
years. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


/OCT  1 1  t,97Fj 


OlSCHARGE-UR! 
MAY  26  1981 


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